You can tell this is a holiday photo because of the snow…….. Did I ever mention how pretty Utah dark skies are? *wistful sigh*
UMMM What was I saying? Oh, yes! I remember.
On Black Friday, we’ll be running a 20% off sale for certain sized prints. Stay tuned (errr, check here or sign up the newsletter reminder) for more information!
Light & Landscape put together a blue hour assignment and honestly, I needed the motivation to get off my couch. Winter is for hibernating, and dragging myself away from the blankets into the February cold was no easy task.
Thankfully, I managed it. This color lingered for an hour and a half after sunset. I’m not entirely sure I like the composition, but I really, really loved sitting there under the stars, enjoying the quiet.
I’m not sure I’ll ever do anything with this shot, but name suggestions are welcome.
The Watcher :: ME
This is throwback to summer 2017 when I took a last minute road trip to Nubble light with some friends. If I recall correctly, I think there was a chance of northern lights…. but in the time it took to get there, the kp died down and we were “stuck” with just the Milky Way. ❤️
This is 8 frames stitched together into a pano, with a little magic dust sprinkled on top.
In most areas of the East Coast of the US, light pollution is so prevalent that many people have gone their entire lives without every having seen the Milky Way. They don’t realize what they’re missing because to them, that’s just normal. Because it’s normal, they also don’t realize all of the problems that come along with light pollution- disrupted circadian rhythms and the health problems associated with that, disruption in migration patterns and growth cycles for flora and fauna, behavioral changes in animals, etc.
In a discussion I had with another photographer recently, another tragic consequence of light pollution is that people don’t get to experience the feeling of connection and perspective that comes from looking up at the night sky and realizing we are just a small part of a massive universe. We are beautiful specks of Star dust who have been given a precious gift – the opportunity to live our life on a rare habitable planet – and we shouldn’t take that for granted. Rather, through the stars, we should be reminded to live our lives as fully and beautifully as we are able.
This particular shot was taken last week in a little swath of dark-ish sky in CT. I had the joy of teaching night sky photography, and watching my student’s love for photographing the night sky grow in front of my eyes. It was a lovely experience. ❤️
They say bad things come in 3’s, unless you’re one of the unfortunate few (me) for whom there is no limit to the amount of short straws you can draw at once. That means that like most stressed out Americans, I have a full complement of coping mechanisms.
Most of them involve alcohol and eating too much ice cream…er…I mean exercise and wholesome board games. But the best escape is through art! So sometimes when insomnia hits, I’ll take a drive with my camera.
This is the sort of magic I come home with….star trails obscured by a cloud bank and light pollution. Lol At least it was pretty. 🙂
Want more info on how to make star trails? Keep your eyes peeled for David and I’s next project! You can sign up for our newsletter to stay informed about that.
Stardust and Dreams :: CA
“He stared up at the stars: and it seemed to him then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing a dance almost infinite in its complexity.” – Neil Gaiman
Growing up in Connecticut, I came to think of light pollution as the norm. It wasn’t until I started traveling that I realized how many stars there really are. Now, dark skies take my breath away every damn time.
This image was taken last month in Badwater Basin, Death Valley on a beautiful, cold, starry night. In reality, it is a manual blend of two exposures. The base image, exposed for the sky, didn’t retain much foreground detail. I brushed in a little of a lighter exposure on the foreground in post processing.
Base Image:
iso 1600
30 sec
f/3.5
10 mm
Nubble Lights :: ME
‘Tis the season for the Aurora!
Looking for tips on photographing the Northern Lights? I did a write up on the subject here for The Outbound Collective! 🙂
Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.
Of course, that’ll really only work out for you if you happen to be wearing a space suit…. haha
This past weekend we had a super blood moon eclipse. I don’t recall ever seeing a lunar eclipse before that, and I have to say, it was pretty damn cool.
For those of you who missed it, this is a photo stack composite of the first 20 minutes of that eclipse. These exposures are approximately 2 minutes apart.
As for the image itself…it’s not going to win any awards. Unless you’re giving out awards for being awesome? Yeah, it might win that. 😉 But it *is* an opportunity to talk about photographing the moon.
When you choose to shoot for the moon, you have to remember three things: underexpose the scene to properly expose the moon, large (to large-ish) aperture, and fast shutter speed.
The moon is very bright, and in order to catch the details on the surface, you need to under expose your image. Otherwise, you’ll blow your highlights. This is one of those times were it is okay to crush your shadows on the histogram!
In order to prevent the “starburst” effect, you need a wider aperture (aka f/lower number). I would say if you’re heading toward f/16 or higher, you may run into problems. Your camera’s sweet spot (generally f/9-f/11) or lower number will be a wide enough aperture to prevent the starburst effect.
Because our position in the surface of earth is constantly changing in relation to the moon, you will also need a fast shutter speed to prevent blur in your images. That works out fine, though, since underexposing your image is part of the master plan!
To capture these exposures, I used a tripod and a 2 sec timer to avoid camera shake, a zoom lens, I put my camera into manual mode, and used the live view feature to focus manually. If your camera doesn’t have a live view feature, setting your focus to infinity should get you pretty close and you can tweak it from there.
The image settings are: ISO 100, 135mm, 1/500 sec, f/5.6
Happy shooting! 🙂
Looking for other bloggers, book reviewers (if you can read, you're in!) and photographers who want to join forces to save the world! (Or something like that.)
SeeingSpotsPhoto.com 