Night Photography, Big Bend National Park, Texas

If you want to take pictures of the stars, the Milky Way in particular, you will be better off if you find a location with dark skies. In Sonoma County there are no night skies that are truly dark. It may look dark, but when shooting the Milky Way to the south, with a long exposure, the lights from the city will show at the horizon. And, you will likely have airplane trails in most of your frames. One place with truly dark skies is Big Bend National Park in Texas. And not airplanes! I have been there a few times with Andy Cook of Rocky Mountain Reflections (great workshops by the way). This first image is of the old movie set located west of Lajitas along highway 170.

This view was taken not only a few yards away. It was totally dark and I could not see the river with my naked eye, but the person I was with reassured me it was there. The camera can see so much more than the naked eye.

This picture was also taken in Big Bend National Park. We walked into Santa Elena Canyon in the dark, found a safe ledge and got this image overlooking the Rio Grand River as it emerges from the canyon.

After photographing at Big Bend I like to stop over near McDonald Observatory. The skies here, like at big bend, are dark. If you time your visit right you may be treated to a star party sponsored by the observatory. On this occasion I was fortunate to be able to attend one. During the narrative the presenter asked if there was anyone in the audience 40 years old. A lady raised her had and then the presenter pointed out a star whose light we were looking at on this night left the year she was born. When I got home I looked up a star that left on my day of birth.

Comments

Mesa Arch & The Washer Woman

When the first light of the day hits the underside of an arch in Canyon Lands or Arches National Parks they glow a beautiful shades of crimson much like those found in slot canyons. A magnificent example is Mesa Arch located in Canyon Lands, Utah. However, as with many of the more popular photography spots, if you want to get a good shot you have to be there early. We were staying in Moab and it was about an hour’s travel time from the motel to getting on site at the arch. But arriving at or near sunrise would not be sufficient, we had to be there at least two hours before sunrise in other to have assurance of a front row seat. This is one of the parts shooting sunrises that I enjoy tremendously. Getting up around 3 am, traveling to the site under the stars, walking in to the location in the dark and setting up without being able to see the whole scene that is going to unfold. On this morning we had a treat. We were the first ones there so we could pick our spots. But more...

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work. The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time. On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites. I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own. I am pretty excited about this showing. One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland. When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it. This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

Aurora Borealis May 10: A Northern Lights Extravaganza

As a quick update: All of these images were taken on the night of May 10-11, 2024. on San Juan Island WA. We were taken by surprise in the middle of our vacation when it was announced there was to be an aurora display that would likely be visible from our location. What an understatement! What we witnessed was simply out of this world. We saw colors I did not know existed in the auroras, especially the light pinks and, of all things, orange (neon). There were four of us on the grounds at the Trumpeter Inn during the "show". I was the only one with a DSLSR camera so the others would see something interesting and I would point my camera in that direction and take a timed exposer. Most were in the 15 to 20 second length. At one point, Jan looked up straight overhead and saw something that was quite unusual; it looked like some kind of convergence. I pointed the camera overhead and took this picture, which I find startling....

Notes To My Mother

Search This Blog