Into the Night with Ben Coffman

"Dust Lanes" - taken in the Alvord Desert of Oregon ~ © Ben Coffman

Ben Coffman moved to Portland, Oregon with his family about four years ago. Even though he bought his first DSLR in 2003, it wasn't until he relocated to Oregon that he "quit goofing around", got serious about his digital photography, and started shooting the night sky.

"Phone Booth Selfie" - The
pay phone booth is the last
of a dying breed. When cell
phones don't have service,
the booth is there to lend a
helping hand, no matter
the hour — "as long as I
had correct change, that is.
...Farewell old friend!"

Ben's biggest challenge in photographing Dust Lanes was the pure remoteness of the Oregon "outback" location, which is of particular concern when one is bringing his entire family, including young children, on a road trip with him. "New tires on the car, a filled 5-gallon jug of water, and plenty of gasoline helped to reassure me that I wasn't endangering us all," says Ben.

"I was also a little nervous about camping in the middle of the desert. The weather forecast suggested a chance of rain, and I've heard horror stories about campers getting stuck out in the middle of the playa when the hard-packed dirt turns to sticky mud."

On this particular night, the skies clouded over during the blue hour, so Ben put away his camera and set his alarm for 2:00 AM, just so he could wake up and check to see if the skies had cleared. At the planned hour, he was thrilled to see a fairly clear sky. The playa, which is mostly white, glowed in the starlight. "What I couldn't see with my naked eye was a thin layer of atmospheric moisture that produced a gauzy, dreamy look to the stars.  ...Rather than fighting it in post-processing, ... I thought the softness fit well with the surreal feel of the landscape," says Coffman.

This photo is two exposures: One for the sky and one for the ground. RAW processing for both exposures took place in Lightroom 5, with blending and other adjustments (local contrast, saturation, sharpening) occurring in Photoshop CS6.

Getting it Right: When I asked Ben about the satisfaction he finds in completing a shot like Dust Lanes, he whipped, "Any satisfaction I would have gained from completing this photo was overshadowed by the amount of frustration involved in finally getting it right! This was actually my fourth full attempt at post-processing it — I have three other "finished" versions of this photo that will never see the light of day because I wasn't quite happy with the final result."

Dust Lanes is part of a larger series Coffman is working on this year, in which he is trying to capture more detailed versions of the night sky than what he had previously captured in his landscape astrophotography. He is trying to illustrate via his techniques that there's more beauty to the night sky than meets the naked eye. He is also trying to raise awareness for the conservation of our night skies (e.g., reducing light pollution via responsible lighting methods).

Ben Coffman shoots with a Canon camera and an assortment of manual lenses. When he is not shooting or "looking at the photos of one of the many, many talented photographers that live in this area", he enjoys coffee, training Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and hanging out with his family, but not necessarily in that order. More of Ben's photography can be found at his website.

Milky Way Landscapes by Denise Waterman

Milky Way with Bristlecone Pine in Bryce Canyon ~ © Denise Waterman
Nikon D600 with Nikkor 14-24mm @ 24mm • f/2.8 • 30 seconds • ISO 6400

Denise Waterman is being featured today because her Meetup.com peers voted her Moulton Barn and Bristlecone Pine photos into second and third place, respectively.

Milky Way over John Moulton Barn, Mormon Row, GTNP ~ © Denise Waterman
Nikon D600, Rokinon 24mm • f/1.4 • 15 seconds • ISO 6400 (click to enlarge)

Denise Waterman is a retired mechanical engineer and a mother of two grown daughters. She has had a lifetime love of both photography and astronomy and is excited to be learning a new way to combine the two hobbies with night photography.  The best part is being able to share the hobby with her husband Steve.

Denise and Steve also enjoy doing wildlife photography together. Owls are her favorite wildlife subject.

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

Watchman under the Milky Way by Christopher Wray

"Watchman under the Milky Way" - Zion Canyon, Zion N.P. ~ © Christopher Wray (click to enlarge)

Christopher Wray, of Southern Colorado, created our Photo of the Day using a Canon 5D Mark III and a Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 Ultra Wide Angle lens. Chris combined two exposures, one of the sky for 30 seconds and another of the sandstone cliffs for 60 seconds. Both exposures were at ISO 4000, using an f/2.8 aperture. He did post processing in Photoshop to blend the two exposures.

"Our spiral galaxy’s bulge, of tightly packed central stars, is prominently visible [at certain times of the year] above The Watchman," says Chris. "Zion National Park is home to astonishing natural beauty by day. By night, the faint city lights of Springdale delicately illuminate the massive sandstone cliffs, while the Milky Way and surrounding heavens shimmer like exquisite jewels."

Challenges: "Unwanted stray light was the biggest challenge I faced while capturing this photo," reports Chris. "Despite the fact I was in a remote location, the occasional headlight of a passing car, headlamp from a fellow photographer or even blinking lights from a fixed wing aircraft was erroneously added to my exposure. It took a couple of takes to get a clean night sky, once I locked down the camera settings and composition."

Technique and tools: Chris is continually amazed at the ability of today’s DSLR camera sensor to capture latent hue, form and detail that reside in the dark sky. "By using basic Photoshop Curves controls and commonly available plug-in Nik Software, I was able to pull out the structure and color in the Milky Way without the need to introduce artificial color or saturation," say Chris. "I intentionally chose 3200º K as my white balance to create a cool midnight blue appearance."

Christopher Wray is a marketing communication consultant and avid digital photographer. He loves travel, landscape, portrait photography and most recently astrophotography. He is influenced by Ansel Adam’s guiding principle, “You don't take a photograph, you make it.” More of Chris’ work is viewable at his website and on 500px.

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

'Into the Future' by Jeremy Thies

"Into the Future" - Moonbeams through snow covered trees ~ © Jeremy Thies 2014
Canon 6D • Samyang 14mm f/2.8 • 30 seconds, f/4, ISO 4000

Jeremy Thies of Casper, Wyoming, created our Photo of the Day. This photo was taken on Casper Mountain, which is about a 15 minute drive from Casper. The starburst affect from the moon was present straight out of camera, although Jeremy did enhance it and spread it throughout the top section of the image, using luminosity masks and sharpening/brightening in Photoshop CS6.

Jeremy Thies has lived in the scenic state of Wyoming most of his life. He is a 100% self taught photographer, specializing in landscape photography. He has a bachelors degree in Criminal Justice and spends the majority of his time working at a law firm. "Every free chance I get, you can find me out photographing some landscape, storm, or sunset —early mornings aren't my thing," says Jeremy!

More of Jeremy's photography can be seen at his website and on Google Plus.



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

Fire Tree by Prajit Ravindran

"Fire Tree" - Star Trails around North Star, and a tree lighted by a campfire ~ © Prajit Ravindran

Prajit Ravindran shot our Photo of the Day in the Little Sahara Recreation Area, Juab County, Utah. Prajit used something we don't often see here at this blog: film. He used an old Mamiya RB67 Film camera, with a Mamiya Sekor 37mm fisheye lens, and exposed onto an ISO 100 film, using an exposure of f/8 for 35 minutes. The Star Walker iPhone app was used to figure out the location of the North Star.

Prefers film and mechanical cameras for star trails: Prajit prefer his Mamiya film camera over digital for shots of star trails for a couple of reasons. First, there is very little noise when using film vs. digital. Secondly, he doesn't have to worry about running out of battery power since the Mamiya RB67 is completely mechanical. In fact, Prajit purchased his used Mamiya mainly to take multi-hour shots of star trails, even though this photographed was exposed for less than an hour.

Prajit's biggest concern was that the details in the tree would be blown out due to excess light from his nearby campfire. He ended up taking a 35 minute exposure rather than the 1-hour exposure he would have preferred, to prevent over exposure of the tree.

Prajit Ravindran is a software engineer, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photography is his passion, with emphasis on landscapes, urban and long exposure photography. He loves the diverse landscapes of Utah. Prajit recently traveled around the state, logging 8300 miles in 8 months. He shoots mainly with a Nikon D7000. In addition to his recent purchase of the Mamiya RB-67 film camera, he has also converted his old Nikon D80 into an IR camera. More of Prajit's work can be seen at his website, and at his 500px page.

Milky Way over Tree at Hill End

The Tree in "Milky Way Over Hill End" ~ © Nate Cochrane
Canon 5D Mk II • Canon 16-35mm L f/2.8 @ 16mm • f/2.8  • 20 sec • ISO 3200

Nathan "Nate" Cochrane photographed our Photo of the Day in the gold rush town of Hill End, NSW, Australia. He light painted the tree by way of a Canon 580 EX II speedlite, with several pops on either side of the tree and a couple up its trunk, at full burst, to overpower the street lights and reveal the sinuous play of its branches.

History: Hill End holds a special place in the hearts of Australian photographers, because in many ways this was a birthplace for photography in this country. In 1872, Hill End gave up the biggest gold nugget ever pulled out of the ground anywhere in the world, which was as tall as its putative finder, Bernhardt Holtermann. The German immigrant parlayed his wealth into significant political clout in the colonies; but, ever eager to give something back to his adopted country, he financed a massive undertaking to document the entire town on 8x10 wet plate.

The Holtermann Collection encompasses some 3500 of an estimated 15,000 glass negatives that originally detailed street by street, house by house, just about every square inch of the town and the minutiae of life at the height of the rush. This was roughly 150 years before Google Streetview.

Nate continues to blog extensively on Holtermann, the photography he financed, and has even found his lost resting place.

Challenges: Nate's biggest challenge for this photograph was the cold. It drops to below zero degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) at Hill End in winter and this night there was also a strong fog that curtailed a longer shoot because he had to wipe the lens dry between exposures. The sodium-vapor street lamps threw up strange colors, but rather than blast them out, Nate used their tinge to warm the landscape, which he thinks added something special to the final image.

Satisfaction: Nate was out to get a different shot that night. He was looking for images of the galaxy rising over one of the many extant churches in town. But when he saw this tree he knew this was the image he had to make. "I've been back there to shoot the tree at other times of the year and have achieved technically superior shots but this is still the one that ‘clicked’ in my head. I used the lessons I learned that night to inform other shoots, and this is still my reference before I head out for night shoots."

Nate continues, "While I have no proof, I'd like to think this tree was around when Holterman’s photographers, Beaufoy and Merlin, were snapping with their view cameras, so I'm completing a circle of life and photography. People tell me they love this image and that it means different things to them. That's the power of any art—once the artist releases it to the world, it takes on a meaning and a life of its own that could not have been anticipated when it was conceived and executed."

Tools and Software: The Gitzo Traveler tripod is Nate's constant companion when shooting at night because it's light and sturdy. He never goes anywhere without his Giotto Rocket Air Blower, in order to keep his camera's imaging sensor free of dust and spots. When shooting at night it's helpful to have a few LED torches (he prefers the LED Lenser) to see what's in one's bag and to avoid stumbling into holes in the ground (there are many hidden mine shafts still in the town). He use a laser pointer to assist in focusing. "The bright, pin-point reflected light is easy for the camera’s auto-focus to see, and it’s easier than performing hyperfocal calculations in my head," says Nate.

A technical issue familiar to anyone who shoots stars against landscapes, is trying to keep the foreground sharp while letting in enough light through a wide aperture. The above image was shot all in camera, with limited post processing, so while the focus of the tree is sharp, much of the rest of the foreground is soft. "Since I made this photograph, I’ve worked on blending images, shooting separately for the ground and the sky and bringing them into Photoshop for post-processing," says Nate.

Nate Cochrane lives in Sydney, Australia. He is an Australian technology journalist, photographer and media consultant who contributes to the Sydney Morning Herald, a Fairfax Media broadsheet newspaper, among other publications. He was previously editor-in-chief for IT publications CRN Australia, SC Magazine and iTNews.

As a journalist and professional photographer, who specializes in reporting on technology and shooting for news, Nate enjoys the challenge of shooting low-light subjects. His work has been exhibited in Sydney at the Australian Centre for Photography, the Head On Photo Festival and appears in the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age newspapers. "I'm blessed that my calling enables me to travel the world, shooting and reporting on what I experience," reports Nate.

You can find more of Nate's photos and writing at Flickr, on his blog and website, which is currently running a special gallery of low-light images, including more from the Hill End set. (Note: for a limited time, readers of this blog can receive 25% off the list price of prints fulfilled through his website, by entering the code "21214-ITN-BLOG" near the end of the checkout process.)

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
   -  25% OFF savings on select "IMAGE10" workshops booked before April 1, 2014  -

Moon Burst at Sunburst Peak by Mei Xu

"Moon Burst at Sunburst Peak" (Mt. Assiniboine Provincial Park, Canada) ~ © Mei Xu (click to enlarge)

Mei Xu supplied our Photo of the Day. It was taken with a Nikon D700, using a 17-35mm f/2.8 lens. She blended two images. The mountain was photographed using an exposure of f/16, 20 seconds, at ISO 200. The night sky exposure was f/2.8, 6 seconds, at ISO 1600. The images were processed and blended using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Mei currently lives in Colorado. When she is traveling, hiking and skiing, the camera is her third eye to explore the wonder of the world and to capture the beauty of the nature. She finds this type of night photography challenging because it requires one to shoot images at different times in order to reduce noise and compress the contrast ratio into an image that can be seen photographically. "There are tons of beautiful images about Mt. Assiniboine. I think mine is different than others. It is unique with the moon and beautiful texture of the clouds," says Mei.

More of Mei's work can be seen on her website and her 500px 'Mengzhonghua' page.

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
   -  25% OFF savings on select "IMAGE10" workshops booked before April 1, 2014  -

Geminids - Chilean Style by Yuri Beletsky

Geminid Meteor shower over the Chilean Atacama desert ~ © Yuri Beletsky

A few days ago, Yuri Beletsky was able to capture the maximum of the Geminid Meteor shower over the Chilean Atacama desert. Despite the full Moon, the Geminids were spectacular. In the foreground you can see the landscape of Chilean Atacama desert as well the telescopes of Las Campanas Observatory. In the far distance, one can see the cloud cover over the ocean.

Technical Misspeak: Most of call it the "Geminids Meteor shower" —however, the Germinids are a meteor shower! There are a few times each year when the  number of these so-called "shooting stars" increases dramatically, and the Geminids is one of those.

Equipment and Technique: Yuri used a Canon 6D body and an adapted Nikkor 14-24mm for the shot. The total exposure time was 4 hours, where each individual exposure was set at 10 to 20 seconds (depending on the brightness of the sky).

Yuri Beletsky

Born in Belarus, Yuri now lives in Chile where he works as an astronomer at Las Campanas observatory of Carnegie Institution of Washington. Yuri has been an enthusiastic amateur stargazer since childhood. During his spare time at the observatory, Yuri likes take wide-field panoramic images of the Milky Way and other natural phenomena. Short snapshots deliver fascinating views of the surrounding landscape at dusk or dawn, while longer exposures produce breathtaking pictures of the starry sky. Images obtained by Yuri have been featured on popular websites, and in press releases, books and magazines. He continually shares his passions for astronomy and astrophotography with people around the world. You can see more of Yuri Beletsky's photography at his 500px website.

Best Air in the World: The dark skies above the Atacama Desert provide a unique opportunity to reveal the majesty of our cosmos. Las Campanas, which hosts two 6.5-m Magellan telescopes, is one of four large observatories located in Chile's Atacama desert, the driest place on Earth. The conditions are excellent for astronomy because of the exceptional quality of the atmosphere. Not only are there more than 300 clear nights per year here, but due to very low turbulence of the air, they can obtain very sharp images, which is impossible to get in other places. That is why Chile is often called as "astronomical paradise" or "astronomical capital" of the world.

Royce's 2014 Workshop, Lecture & Video Conference Schedule: NightScapeEvents.com
Featured Post: Shooting Stars eBook Review — How to Photograph the Stars and the Moon

POTW: 'Birthday Girl' by Aaron M Photo

"Birthday Girl" ~ © Aaron Meyers (Aaron M Photo). Click on photo for a larger view.

This 75th Birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge is our featured Photo of the Week. Aaron Meyers photographed it with a Nikon D700, using a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S @ 40mm, f/9, 3.3 sec, ISO 200. Aaron set the camera on bulb mode so he could control how long the shutter was open. It was shot just below "Slacker Hill" in the Marin Headlands. There was no manipulation of this image other than Lightroom and Photoshop for standard clean up.

Challenges: Fog was predicted for this evening so there was worry that the entire thing would be skunked and the fireworks wouldn't be visible. The location Aaron wanted to use, Hawk Hill, is lower in elevation than Slacker Hill and he feared if he went to the lower spot it might be in the fog. Meyers decided to go to a higher elevation and hope that if there was fog he might get fireworks coming out of it. As it turned out, there wasn't any fog at all and any location he would have picked would have worked.

Another obstacle to overcome was that fireworks can be blown out if you keep the shutter open too long. Depending on how long the fireworks lasted, Aaron knew he would have to quickly raise or lower the ISO. If he wanted to capture a lot of fireworks he would lower the ISO to let more of the fireworks be captured without clipping. If he just wanted to highlight a quick section of the fireworks, he would increase the ISO so he could get the color and details. He also wanted to keep the ISO fairly high because the lights on the bridge had been turned off and the bridge just looked black if the ISO was too low. "It was a constant struggle the entire night to get enough exposed without over-exposing," says Aaron!

Satisfaction: Aaron knew this was going to be a special event and he was excited to photograph it. Once he saw the weather was going to hold out and there wouldn't be any fog he started to get even more excited. Choosing the "best" spot to photograph became a tough decision.

"I was running all over, back and forth between places trying to decide," says Aaron. "Once the fireworks started I knew this was going to be a special day. The committee that organized the fireworks did a beautiful job and this was the best fireworks show I had ever seen -- complete with lasers, sparklers, fireworks, and more. It was truly a breathtaking experience. I know everyone around me, myself included, left in awe."

More of Aaron's night photography can be seen at his website.