Double Arch and Milky Way by Mike Darter

Double Arch, Arches National Park ~ © J. Mike Darter (click to enlarge)
Canon 5D Mark III • Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8 • 30 sec • 6400 ISO
(Light painting by Royce Bair)

This is one of the most unique perspectives and compositions of Double Arch I've seen in some time. What also makes this image so special to me is the persistence that Mike Darter and the other workshop members had to make this happen.

Much of our September 9-12 Arches Workshop was plagued with rain and overcast clouds, yet we continued shooting and light painting into this night and the early morning hours. We finally had this 10-minute partial parting of the clouds at about 1:00 AM on Wednesday morning. The clouds again cooperated later that evening for our Delicate Arch shoot.

Mike with his oldest daughter

J. Mike Darter worked in law enforcement from 1991 to 2002 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Dallas, Texas.  He is a co-founder and currently CEO of CCW Safe, LLC based out of Oklahoma City.  Mike has been involved in art since a young age, showing watercolor and mixed media from the age 13.  He was accepted to Pratt Institute of Art in Brooklyn, NY in 1987, but chose instead to attend the University of Oklahoma to study Criminal Justice.  He continued painting through college, and well into his law enforcement career, but became interested in photography around 2000.  He attends wildlife and nature photography workshops whenever he can, and is currently showing at a Cherokee Art Gallery in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and will be showing at a private show in downtown Oklahoma City in December.  Mike would like to get some images licensed with some of the nature media outlets, but more importantly, introduce his daughters to photography and be able to spend some quality time on the side of a mountain with them in the future watching a sunrise. The above photo is one of Mike's favorites.  It is of his oldest daughter photographing the sunrise, at Myrtle Beach, this summer.


Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
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