'Other World' - Blue Hour Hoodoo Light Painting

Mushroom-shape hoodoos in Goblin Valley ~ © Royce Bair (click to enlarge)
Canon 5D Mk3 • 24mm lens @ f/4.5 • 8 sec • ISO 400

Goblin Valley can seem like another world, especially at night. Add light painting and the fun really begins. This is truly a playground for night photographers. My friend, Steve Bunderson, and I spent two days and nights here last week, and had a blast!

"Blue Hour" Photography: Photographing during the "blue hour" can save-the-day when the weather produces lousy conditions for photography. We had hoped to photograph the hoodoos with a starry night sky. However, the whole day had been very cloudy and overcast. By waiting until about 20-30 minutes after sunset, the sky turned a dramatic, deep blue, and produced just a hint of shadow detail on the landscape. During this narrow window of time, Steve and I performed our magic. Steve operated both of our cameras and shouted out feedback, while I handled the light painting.

Light Painting Techniques: The large hoodoo in the foreground is about 20 feet high (over three times the height of a man). The hoodoo in the background is about 40 feet high, and the butte behind it is about 100 feet high. All were lighted using two hand-held quartz-halogen spotlights, from a distance of about 150 feet to the right of the cameras. The hoodoo in the foreground was lighted with a spotlight set at one-half power, and the background hoodoo was lighted with a second spotlight set at full power —one light in each hand (it's important to keep your hands moving during the camera exposure). Both lights are the Black & Decker Lithium Ion Halogen Rechargeable Spotlights. The glow on the front hoodoo, coming up underneath the "mushroom" is from a third spotlight, which is lying on the ground, behind the hoodoo.

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

Hoodoos, Stars and Lightning by Phillip Monson

Toadstool Hoodoos, Grand Stair-case Escalante ~ © Phillip Monson (click to enlarge)
Canon 5D Mark III • EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 35mm • f/3.2 • 30 sec • ISO 640

I'll let Phill describe how this photo was produced: "After shooting the sunset at the Toadstool Hoodoos in Grand Staircase-Escalante [National Monument], my friend and I headed back to our 'camp' for the night so we could rest up before an early morning. With a full moon out, it totally washed out the sky so we didn't plan on any night shots. Around 4:00 A.M., however, we were awaken up by an intense lightning show; and with the moon having set, we knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up, so we made the hike back out and set up. The storm moved perfectly behind the best side of the main hoodoo, and with the moon gone, we got a few stars as well."

The light painting was done with a Brinkmann Dual Xenon Spotlight, which he bounced off the rocks to the side of him, in order to get more even coverage.

Below, is another image from Phill's beloved southwest desert area of Utah. It is in an area known as the "Devil's Garden" of the Escalante region. There was a gap between the foreground area and the tall hoodoos where he hid and pointed the Dual Xenon light at the ground, enabling him to get the even bounce light onto the hoodoos.  [Editor's note: experienced light painters often employ this bounce or reflection technique to produce even lighting in close quarters, or use it to give directional lighting to objects hundreds of feet away. The reflected light also tends to warm and amplify the colors of these sandstone formations.]

"Three Patriarchs", Grand Stair-case Escalante ~ © Phillip Monson (click to enlarge)
Canon 5D Mark III • EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens @ 16mm • f/3.2 • 30 sec • ISO 640

Phillip Monson got his first DSLR, a Canon Rebel, in late 2008 for a trip to Europe, and has been hooked on making images ever since. Phill found landscape photography to be his biggest interest, primarily of the southwest deserts of Utah. He tries to frequent these areas every other month. When not working as a sales trainer at his day job, he tries to get out as much as possible to the amazing scenery that Utah has to offer. Phill is also currently working on a photo book of all the Utah LDS Temples. More of his photography can be found at his Facebook, Flickr, and Google+ pages.