Light Painting Delicate Arch

Milky Way and light-painted Delicate Arch ~ © Royce Bair

Last week I conducted a 'NightScape' photography workshop at Arches National Park. We had crazy, wet weather! However, patient and persistent efforts by our group members allowed us to pull off some amazing shots during the windows of partial clearing that we were given.

The arch is lighted with a large, stationary, diffused light from the right (about 300 feet away). I'm providing an accent light from behind the arch with a small, hand-held, quartz halogen spotlight.

Our 'NightScape' workshop group photographing a moonscape behind a light-painted Delicate Arch ~ © Royce Bair

Earlier, we photographed a moonscape behind a light-painted Delicate Arch that my lighting assistant (my son, Chris) and I had arranged. (This is a totally different lighting setup than we used in the top photo with the Milky Way. Here, the stationary key light is coming from the left, and we are using small, moving spotlights on the right side to fill in harsh shadows.) A couple of hours after the moon had set, the clouds finally cleared enough to get the Milky Way shot (top) we had been waiting for.

Note: This ultra-wide angle shot, with the people in the foreground, makes the arch look smaller than it really is. Here's a better size comparison by Jaromir Dzialo.