Ben Canales: A Sense of Imagination and Wonder

"Make a Wish" - starry night at Crater Lake, Oregon ~ © Ben Canales (click image for a larger view)

"In our youth, the stars were fertilizer for stories and adventures. Shooting stars became wishes. We didn’t know it, but the crazy talk and thoughts, ...with no limit in that big sky, were our dreams forming."   So wrote Ben Canales, describing a photo that went on to win National Geographic's Travel Photo of the Year in 2011 —a big wake up call to the public reaction for night images. (Click the Nat'l Geo link to see behind-the-scenes details about Ben's prep for this shot.) Editor's Note: This January 16, 2013 article is being re-published to coincide with an Instagram "NightScaper" feature I'm doing today on Ben.

Finding satisfaction in night photography: Ben's night pictures started as an attempt to capture and share the things he was seeing that others had never experienced under proper dark skies (Canales is originally from New Jersey). "I love the sense of discovery in night shooting. I never know what a place will look like under the stars until I actually go out there and shoot it. My camera becomes [my] night vision goggles to literally see into the dark. That aspect of 'what's out there' gets me going every time. I also love the difficulty of it. I get bored easily, so the challenge of shooting in the dark keeps me engaged and interested." Ben finds it fascinating to be able to shape 'reality' as he wants to, using light and darkness.

"History Reflected" - Lost Lake, Oregon ~ © Ben Canales

Early photo history: Back in 2010, Ben had his camera on a tripod to shoot a sunset while camping by hot springs. The sunset came and went, and rather than break down the gear, he jumped back into the hot spring. "I was mesmerized with the stars as the sky darkened and got excited to try and take a picture of the stars. I had no clue what I was doing."

Luckily, Ben figured out that he needed as much light as possible in manual mode. The first shot was an out of focus, straight up view of the stars; but his jaw literally dropped when he saw more stars on the back of his camera than his eyes could see! "A few shots later, when I saw the Milky Way resolve out of the image, I freaked out! Talk about the joy of discovery," laughs Ben.

After more research on the Internet, Canales realized this was a barely explored style of photography. It held an untapped potential of discovery, and the challenge to come up with new techniques was extremely captivating for him. About a month later Ben had a traumatic work injury that chopped off a finger and mutilated the others on his left hand! In the down time of rehab that summer, a friend was kind enough to lend him their Canon 30D and he went full time into obsessive exploring and learning night photography.

Behind the Scenes: Concerning the above photo, Ben writes: "The experience of this night was personally unforgettable. I was literally moved to tears when I stepped to the waters edge and saw the scene I was standing in front of. I literally got choked up. Technically, it was the first time using [a] fast 24mm f/1.4 lens, where I realized the game changing power of more light in regards to the Milky Way."

"Sometimes Alone" ~ © Ben Canales — "My new personal favorite. It's so different than my usual of glowing tents, houses, big mountain ranges. The emptiness and [the] intimacy keeps me loving this shot."

 Challenges: Canales faces many challenges in his style of night photography.  In the beginning, it was camera quality. "I used to do s-o-o-o-o much work in post to manage high ISO noise, but now that's quickly becoming a thing of the past. Three cheers for Lightroom 4!," says Ben.  He learned night shooting on a Canon 30D, and when he was able to move up to a Canon 5D Mark II, it literally blew his mind how much better the High ISO was from this camera. The 5D Mark III and 1Dx have gone levels higher.  But other challenges still remain. Among them are:

• Weather. (Ben lives in the Pacific Northwest, so 8 of 12 months are cloudy and rainy. It's frustrating to be limited to mostly summer shooting.)
• Locations. Gas is getting expensive! Most people don't realize the cost of driving 2-4 hours away to get a few night pictures. 
• Lighting the human element (tent, cabin, car, person). 
• Shooting all night and then trying to functioning as a regular person the rest of the week!

Favorite tools: In the beginning, Ben was always on Stellarium. It was immensely helpful to figure out how the night sky worked and learn the patterns (Canales strongly encourages new shooters to check out this site). Other pieces of equipment he finds it hard to be without:

• Headlamp! To light those foregrounds and people.
• A glowing tent (to take pics of — working all night, I never get to sleep in them ;-)
• 5 hour energy drink

"Finding Oregon" — click image to see the video

Time lapse work: Ben currently lives in Portland, Oregon and works at Uncage the Soul Productions, where he is highly involved with time lapse. Time lapse work has opened all sorts of new doors for Canales. Much of this is the result of teaming up with Uncage the Soul Productions.

Ben originally told them his idea of going around Oregon to make a time lapse video and the team rallied around him to make it happen. They initially did a two-week road trip to make this film. It was an exhausting labor of love, but very rewarding to see it come to life. "Finding Oregon" was produced without an assignment, but has become wildly popular on the Net, helping them to get real, paying jobs. (Here's a behind-the-scenes video presentation Ben and John Walker did at the 2012 TEDxPortland, where you can see Ben "in-person", see their equipment in action, hear the challenges they faced on "Finding Oregon", and their latest film, "Finding Portland".)

You can see more of Ben Canales' photography and purchase prints at his website.

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.

What Color is the Universe?

What is the color of a night sky? If you said "black" you'd be wrong! Black is the lack of light —it's the space between the stars, planets, astroids, and the dust.

Back in 2002, scientist charted the perceptible colors in our universe, and they found on average our universe is somewhat of a light brown brown color. They call it "Cosmic Latte" (play the above video).

Every star has a different color. Most people think all the stars in the night sky are just white. Wrong again! One thing that amazed me when I first began to photograph the night sky was how every star had its own distinct color. You can clearly see that when you do long star trail exposures, like this 7+ hour exposure (via stacking) by the Australian photographer, Lincoln Harrison:

"650 x 40 Seconds" by Lincoln Harrison

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

Bodie Church Star Trails by Jeff Sullivan

"Bodie Church Star Trails" ~ © Jeff Sullivan (click to enlarge)

Our Photo of the Week (POTW) was taken by Jeff Sullivan at his last night photography workshop in the ghost town of Bodie, California. Jeff used a Canon 5D Mark III and the Canon 14mm f/2.8 L lens (30 seconds @ f/2.8. ISO 6400) to take a series of images that were "stacked" together. You can follow how he processed this image on The Landscape Photography Show (Episode 14) YouTube Video. (Jeff has three more night photography dates this year at Bodie.)

Personal History: Jeff was born in Massachussetts and lived 6 miles from Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond. He developed a deep appreciation for nature exploring nearby woods and waterways, and grew up hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and snorkeling the New England coast from Cape Cod to Maine. Upon moving to California in the 1970s Jeff was walking in the shadow of the Range of Light, in the footsteps of John Muir and Ansel Adams. He took up backpacking and 35mm photography in 1974.

Currently, Jeff is a landscape and nature photographer in Galen Rowell's beloved Eastern Sierra. He leads landscape photography workshops in some of the planet's most exotic landscapes. Jeff is also currently researching and writing a guidebook to California's most stunning landscape photography locations, to be published in early 2012 in Laurent Martres' excellent PhotoTripUSA series.

More of Jeff Sullivan's photography can be found on his website, 500px, and Flickr sites.

My '450' Rule to Stop Star Trailing

An 80-minutes star trail exposure vs. a 20-seconds exposure of the Grand Tetons ~ © Royce Bair

Longer exposures cause the stars to "trail"

Stars as Points of Light: My "NightScape" style of star photography endeavors to keep stars as points of light, rather than as star trails; and I also include a landscape feature in the photo. These two requirements make it necessary to keep my exposure times at 30 seconds or less—often much less. (I should mention that I also like to do star trail exposures, too :)

Equatorial Mounts: When astro-photographers take time exposures of just the stars, they use an equatorial mount and a tracking mechanism that keeps the stars in sync with the earth's rotation. Using this system, exposures can be extremely long without blurring the stars or causing them to "trail". If any of the earth's landscape is included in the photo, it is the landscape that would now become blurred during the exposure.

Sharp stars AND landscapes: Because astro-landscape or "NightScape" photos require both the stars and the earth to remain sharp during the time exposure, the length of the exposure must be short enough so that the stars do not appear to rotate or trail due to the earth's rotation.

The math to make it happen: Astronomers know that a normal lens views a smaller area of the sky than a wide angle lens, and a telephoto lens views an even smaller area of the sky. The narrower the field of view, the shorter time it takes for the stars to trail across the camera's picture area.

For this reason, lenses with a longer focal length (more telephoto) will have faster star movement or trailing than lenses with a shorter focal length (more wide angle). Using simple math, amateur astronomers developed a formula called the "600" rule to determine the maximum exposure times for various lenses mounted to 35mm film cameras. The 600 Rule formula says that 600 divided by the focal length of the lens (in millimeters) equals the maximum allowable exposure time in seconds. Example: a camera using a 24mm wide angle lens should use a maximum exposure time of 25 seconds (600 / 24 = 25).

< an 8-sec exposure and a 15-sec shot enlarged to 100% >
8"x10" prints look great using the 600 Rule, but not at 24"x30"

Going from 600 to 450: This old rule or formula is based on the image quality of a typical 8" x 10" enlargement. When images are enlarge to 16" x 20" and larger, more star movement or trailing is apparent, so I've adjusted the rule or formula to a base number of 450 in order to increase the image quality. The same camera using a 24mm wide angle lens should now use a maximum exposure time of 19 seconds (450 / 24 = 18.75).

A simple chart: Both rules or formulas are based on the full-frame 35mm (24x36mm) film format, so the chart below has a column for both full-frame sensor cameras (and their lenses) and a column the smaller APS-C sensor cameras (and their lenses). Users of the four-thirds (4/3) format should use the APS-C column. Instructions: Pick the column that describes your camera system. Find the number of millimeters that is closest to your lens, then find the maximum exposure time in seconds to the right in either the 450 (less star movement) or the 600 column. (To print this chart, select the blue text with your cursor and any instructions you want to include. Copy and paste the text into your favorite word processor. Change the text to a mono-space font, i.e. and "Courier", so the columns will be properly aligned, and print.)

                      "450"     "600"
                      Rule      Rule
   Full-Frm  APS-C*   Maximum   Maximum
   Sensor    Sensor   Exposure  Exposure
   Camera    Camera   Time in   Time in
   Lenses    Lenses   Seconds   Seconds

     8mm      5.3mm     56      75
     9mm      6.0mm     50      67
    10mm      6.7mm     45      60
    11mm      7.3mm     41      55
    12mm      8.0mm     38      50
    13mm      8.7mm     35      46
    14mm      9.3mm     32      43
    15mm     10.0mm     30      40
    16mm     10.7mm     28      37
    17mm     11.3mm     26      35
    18mm     12.0mm     25      33
    19mm     12.7mm     24      32
    20mm     13.3mm     23      30
    21mm     14.0mm     21      29
    22mm     14.7mm     20      27
    23mm     15.3mm     20      26
    24mm     16.0mm     19      25
    25mm     16.7mm     18      24
    26mm     17.3mm     17      23
    28mm     18.7mm     16      21
    30mm     20.0mm     15      20
    32mm     21.3mm     14      19
    35mm     23.3mm     13      17
    40mm     26.7mm     11      15
    45mm     30.0mm     10      13
    50mm     33.3mm      9      12
    55mm     36.7mm      8      11
    60mm     40.0mm      8      10
    65mm     43.3mm      7       9
    70mm     46.7mm      6       9
    80mm     53.3mm      6       7
    90mm     60.0mm      5       7
   100mm     66.7mm      5       6
   120mm     80.0mm      4       5
   135mm     90.0mm      3       4
   150mm    100.0mm      3       4
   175mm    116.7mm      3       3
   200mm    133.3mm      2       3

*Although the Canon APS-C sensor is slightly smaller than the Nikon APS-C sensor (1.6X factor vs. 1.5X factor), I did not feel the difference is significant enough to warrant a 5th column.

Notes: If your ISO is already to the limits, use the 600 column times, or go even a little longer if you have too (ugly noise is worse than having elongated stars). For the least star movement and highest enlargements, use the 450 column. Choose the shutter speed time that best fits your camera. For instance, if you're using a 24mm lens on a full-frame sensor camera, the 450 column says to exposure for 19 seconds. However, the closest setting on you shutter speed dial is 20 seconds. And, if you want even better enlargement quality (and your ISO isn't already max-ed out beyond your tastes), go one shutter speed setting lower to 15 seconds—you'll be surprised at the star movement difference, and the improvement in quality. Use some practical sense, too. For instance, many 15mm wide angle lenses made for a full-frame camera are "fisheye" lenses, with a view angle of 180º. Many 14mm wide angle lenses, made for a full-frame camera, have a view angle of 114º, making their view narrower than a 15mm! The 450 column recommends a maximum exposure time of 32 seconds for the 14mm, whereas the 15mm recommendation is 30 seconds. In reality, because the 14mm has a narrower field of view, an exposure time of 20 to 25 seconds will give much better results.

Normal and telephoto lenses: As you approach the normal and medium telephoto focal lengths, star movement becomes even more apparent. Although the 450 column says I can get by with a 9 second exposure (10 seconds on your shutter speed dial), the sharpness of the stars and planets in the photo below was greatly improved by going to only 5 seconds.

Morning twilight: Venus & Jupiter within the constellation Taurus (50mm f/1.4 lens @ f/3.5 • 5 seconds • ISO 5000)

Featured Post: Shooting Stars eBook Review — How to Photograph the Stars and the Moon

Australian Night Skies by Lincoln Harrison

The Pinnacles, Phillip Island VIC ~ © Lincoln Harrison - "The best location I've ever seen."

Some purist have criticize Lincoln Harrison for being "too colorful", but he continues to do things his way. Making his starry night Australian landscapes look "accurate" is not as important to Lincoln as it is to make it "…look as good as it can." The popularity of his images would indicate that most agree with Lincoln's point of view.

Lincoln, 37, is a self-taught photographer from Bendigo, Australia. Prior to photography, he spent most of my spare time racing off-road motorcycles. He's only been doing photography for the past two and a half years, when he bought his first DSLR to take shots of some ebay items. Somewhere along the way Lincoln got hooked on landscape and night photography, star trails in particular. "I was working nightshift when I got my first camera, so on my days off there wouldn't be much daylight left by the time I got out of bed. There's not much else to photograph around here at night other than the stars."

Apart from getting a nice image to hang on his wall, Lincoln enjoys the process of taking the shots, and being at nice locations under a starry sky. "I try to come up with new ideas and techniques rather than keep churning out different versions of the same basic image."

"Forgotten" - Old barn, Mitiamo VIC ~ © Lincoln Harrison (click to see larger)

"I've done a lot of milky way shots but this was the first time under a very dark sky. I drove around all day looking for a suitable foreground. I gave up and started heading home, and then I saw this old barn."

"Noctis" - Lighthouse, Cape Schanck, VIC ~ © Lincoln Harrison (click to see larger)

"I tried to get this shot three or four times, but the seas were always too fierce to venture down to the rocks at the bottom of the cliff.  I forgot to take my torch with me, and had to climb back up in the dark. I tumbled down the cliff a few times, [but] finally made it to the top after about 2 hours, covered in cuts and bruises."

Lincoln's biggest challenges come from the weather. "Quite often I'll drive for hours with clear skies the whole way, [and] ten minutes before I arrive at my location, the clouds roll in." On the 'Pinnacle' photo,  he was very lucky with the conditions, but for every other time he's been there it has rained non-stop!

"Fusion" - Dead Tree, Ravenswood VIC ~ © Lincoln Harrison (click to see larger)

"This location is a ten minute drive from home. I shoot there a lot. I love that tree. This was a test shoot when I got the D800E. It ended up hanging on my wall 50 inches wide."

Lincoln's Cannot-Do-Without Equipment List:

• Nikon D800E (Low Pass Filter w/Anti-Aliasing Removed)
• Nikkor 14-24mm Lens (AF-S Zoom Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF)
• Gitzo 3532s Tripod with a Manfrotto 405 Geared Head

Lincoln's Most Valuable Tools, Apps, and Software:

• On his iPad, he plans his shots with: The Photographer's Ephermeris, Google Earth, Dark Sky, Tides AU, and OZ Weather.
• On his PC, he does all his post processing with Adobe Photoshop CS6.

"Bib Bang" - Dead Tree, Ravenswood VIC ~ © Lincoln Harrison (click to see larger)

"I was doing some light painting tests at my favorite tree when I came up with this idea. Who says primes are better than zooms?"

More of Lincoln Harrison's work can be seen at his 500px page.

POTW: 'Encoded transmissions' by LED Eddie

"Encoded transmissions" ~ © Neale Smithies (click on image for a larger view)

Our featured Photo of the Week was taken at the Cobbet Hill Earth Station in Pirbright Surrey, UK. Neale Smithies is a British light painting artist and nocturnal photographer known as "LED Eddie." Smithies used a Nikon D300s with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, and shot at 13mm.

Technique: The grey dish was strobed three times with an orange-gelled Nikon SB-600 Speedlight at 1/2 power with the lens and camera set to f/5.6 @ ISO 400. Smithies then made about 180 30-second exposures @ f/5.6 (ISO 800) for the 90-minute star trails (exposures combined in Starstax). Both the star exposures and the dish were photographed with the same 2500º Kelvin White Balance, but the orange gel placed the dish at the opposite end of the Kelvin balance.

Challenges: "After an unsuccessful trip to shoot dishes at GCHQ in Cornwall, I finally managed to gain official access to a high security site containing more satellite dishes than you could shake a stick at," says Smithies. "This particular dish is the size of a small house and the site owners kindly offered to switch off all the security lighting whilst I was there."

Neale's biggest challenge was getting the polaris lined up with the point of the dish, which can be very difficult when using a wide angle lens. "I used a laser [5mw green laser pointer] to frame up and then take a few test exposures at 6400 ISO to check for correct alignment."

Satisfaction: "I wanted to create an image that appeared to be beaming out radio waves into space," says Neales. "It is something I have tried on a few occasions but have always been beaten by cloud or ground mist. I couldn't have wished for a better result when the final image emerged from Starstax."

More of LED Eddie's photography can be seen at his Flickr photostream and his website.

Editor's Note: We plan to do a feature on "LED Eddie's" work in the future. Neale's signature LED flashlight is 7-LED "torch" made by LED Lenser, and known as the X21R Flashlight. The 7-LED reflector pattern of this flashlight is used as Neale's watermark on his website gallery. With up to 1600 lumens, the rechargeable X21R may be the most powerful handheld LED on the market. It's Advanced Focus System allows the light to be directed into a far-reaching spot (up to 1900-foot beam distance), or as a flood light.

POTW: 'Something Different' by Dan Barr

"Something Different" ~ © Dan Barr (click on image for a larger view)

This unique star trails photograph was taken in Culp Valley within Anza Borrego Desert State Park. (Culp Valley is about 12 miles west of Borrego Springs off of the State Highway S22 and is accessible by a 4WD road.) Dan Barr captured this image with his Canon 40D, using a Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 lens (additional EXIF: focal length was 11mm, 30 second exposures at f/2.8, ISO 1600). This is a "stacked" star trail. Dan used 135 individual exposures to make a composite in Photoshop.

Technique: Barr decided to try a new processing technique for this star trail. He usually assembles his star trails in Photoshop by opening all the images as a layered document and changing the blending mode of each layer to "lighten" to create the trails. This time he thought it would be fun to try to make tapering trails to give the star trails a meteor-like effect. He made the tapering trails by varying the opacity of each layer in Photoshop.

The "tapering trails" idea became somewhat of a pain in the neck! Dan changed the opacity in 5% increments so there was roughly seven images for each increment descending from 100% to 0% opacity. It involved considerable trial and error to get a degree of taper he was finally happy with. Finally, to top it off he increased the exposure and contrast of the first exposure in the star trail stack to accentuate the stars and create kind of a cap for the fading star trails. The resulting image was very different from any of his previous star trails, and he had a lot of fun trying something new.

The light painting was completely by accident! "I was fumbling with my keys and accidentally pushed the unlock button on my car remote," says Barr. "The sidelights and interior lights came on briefly and illuminated the boulders. I usually don't worry to much about stray light in my star trails since I can usually mask it out when I am assembling the image in Photoshop. In this case I liked the the effect from the car lights, so I left it in."

Challenges : "For me the biggest challenges in taking this photo were compositional and in post-processing to assemble the final image," said Dan.

After taking many star trails he has learned that he likes to try to include some of the landscape into the shot in addition to the foreground elements to give the final photo a feeling of depth. Dan wasn't happy with the topography of the surrounding landscape so he just decided to fill the bottom half of the frame with boulders. Still, he was worried that he was going to end up with a boring two-dimensional photo.

Satisfaction: "When I actually got home and started assembling the image, I was pleasantly surprised. The light from my vehicle provided some dimensionality to boulders, and I was pleased with the overall framing," reports Barr.

More of Dan Barr's photography can be seen at his Flickr photostream and his website.

Jack Fusco: Finding Darkness in New Jersey

"Night Watch" ~ Cape May, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

Living in New Jersey is definitely the biggest challenge for starry night photographer, Jack Fusco. New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the U.S. so escaping light pollution isn’t an easy task and often feels quite impossible! Because areas near the ocean have the least light pollution, much of Jack's work takes on a bit of a nautical feel.

"When I started photography, I was very big into seascapes and have finally found myself back at the ocean, but more recently under the stars, instead of waiting for the sun to rise. 
After I took my first set of star trails I was immediately hooked on night photography. It was a lot of experimentation at first, but each night was more exciting than the night before. I found myself out shooting any time the skies were clear driving around trying to find new places to shoot or visiting places that I had shot before, but only during the day. Before I knew it I was driving further, sleeping less, and drinking much more coffee!" says Jack.

"Live Endlessly" ~ Strathmere, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

This photo near Strathmere, NJ is a typical example of his frustrations and his ecstasy. After a few weeks of bad weather or just bad timing, clear skies were finally in the forecast. Fusco excitedly headed out to a spot he had been waiting to shoot only to notice a haze settling in. Jack decided that it had been too long since he was able to last shoot, so he was going to carry on towards his destination. "I stayed positive and continued on hoping it would clear up by the time I got there, but didn’t have such luck," laments Jack. Still determined to shoot, he decided to explore some areas other areas in Strathmere. He continued to found himself staring at nothing but hazy skies, but looking out east over the ocean he saw a sky full of stars. He was able to set up just in time to catch the Milky Way rising over the ocean and spent the next few hours relaxing out on the sand!

"Finding Sirius" ~ Ocean City, NJ ~ © Jack Fusco

After three hours of shooting star trails Jack decided to take a few extra minutes before making the drive back home, and ended up taking this shot. Aside from being one of his favorite shots, it serves as a reminder to him to keep looking beyond what his plans. It reminds him to not just plan his shots, but keep an open mind and always remember to have fun while he's shooting.

"Star Shepherd" ~ Acadia National Park, Maine ~ © Jack Fusco

Fasco sometimes travels to neighboring states for his star photography. The Bass Harbor Lighthouse is at the top of his list when he visits Acadia National Park, Maine — a 12 hour drive from his home in Toms River, NJ. He stayed out until around 3:00 am to take this panoramic, before starting the long drive home.

"Sea Isle Stars" ~ taken w/ his new D800E

Equipment and tools: Jack just recently made the big switch from Canon to Nikon. He's very excited about his new setup for shooting the stars which consists of a Nikon D800E and a Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8. Unfortunately, the weather conditions haven’t allowed him much time to really get out and push his new gear, but so far he couldn’t be happier with the results he's been able to get.

His most valuable tools have been web sites like ClearDarkSky, (light pollution maps and clear sky charts) and apps like Star Walk (astronomy guide). A lot of pre-planning goes in to his shots and both tools are integral parts of his process. Jack first uses the ClearDarkSky site to find new locations and monitor the conditions in those areas. After he as picked out a location, he then then uses Star Walk to figure out exactly when he needs to be there for what he planned on shooting. Editor's Note: Dark Sky Finder is another tool that can be used to find the darkest skies in your area.


What Drives Jack's Night Work?  "I find photographing the night sky to be rewarding on many levels. After driving for hours to get as far from light pollution as possible, there’s a huge rush of excitement when you first get out under the stars. It’s like an entirely different sky that you’re looking up at compared to what I see when I step out of my house. After running around and getting all set up to shoot, you then get to relax and take in all of the beauty of a star filled sky.

"I often have people make comments about how I must have a great deal of patience to sit out there while taking stars trails, but it really couldn’t be further from that. I find the time spent out there to be like an escape from the rest of the world. Once the shot is all finished and ready to be posted online, seeing positive or excited reactions to it is certainly a great feeling... Hearing that someone wants to go explore and get a good view of the night sky after seeing my work is a really amazing thing to hear. [It] is probably one of the best compliments I can receive."

More of Jack Fusco's work can be found on his website and his Facebook page.

Editor's Note: The day I interviewed Jack (via the Internet), Hurricane Sandy was about to make landfall. Fusco's home town of Toms River, is only about a mile inland from one of the hardest hit areas of New Jersey: Seaside Heights and Seaside Park! As I finish writing this, I can't help wonder how many residents wouldn't mind having more connected power and light pollution at this moment (See satellite view of Hurricane Sandy's mid-Atlantic blackout)! I still have not been able to make contact with Jack, but he did manage somehow to post this message on his Facebook page: "We were very fortunate and made it through the storm okay. We're still without power, but certainly lucky to have what we do. There was an incredible amount of loss that is still difficult to fully comprehend. My thoughts are with all of those that have and that still are going through this tragedy." I ditto Jack's concerns, and hope many will join me in making a contribution to a relief charity of their choice.

Herbert Raab: Captures Central Europe TWAN Style

Ruins of the medieval fortification called "Steinscloss" in Styria, Austria ~ © Herbert Raab

Herbert Raab lives in Austria, in a small village, about 25 km south of the city of Linz. He loves to capture the beauty of the night sky, and share it with other people. "A lot of people live in light polluted areas and many of them are unaware of that beauty. I hope that images like mine will help to make people aware that a dark, natural sky is a wonder of nature that needs to be preserved."

Finding TWAN: Herbert has been interested in astronomy since he was a little boy. After seeing a presentation by the German TWAN photographer, Stefan Seip in 2009, he realized that digital imaging technology has enabled us to capture that beauty, and he decided to try to take TWAN style images himself. TWAN ("The World At Night") is a pool of photographers from around the world that tries to capture the beauty of the night sky over different landscapes. These images are displayed on the TWAN web site. "Personal contacts with some of the TWAN photographers (including the founder of TWAN, Babak Tafreshi), have inspired me a lot," says Herbert.

In the above image Herbert spent much of the night in the ruins of this medieval fortification, with bats as his only companions. It was an intense experience, still etched in his memory! A stack of 40 individual frames, each of 60 seconds exposure time (using a Canon EOS 550D, Sigma 10mm fisheye, f/3.5, ISO 800), resulting in a total exposure of 40 minutes. The ruins and the landscape were illuminated by the first quarter moon.

"Harvest Time" is a stack 38 individual frames, each of 60 seconds exposure time ~ © Herbert Raab

"This group of trees is located not far away from the place where I live," says Mr. Raab. "I have passed these trees almost daily for years before I finally recognized that they would make a nice foreground for a star trails image." He used a Canon EOS 550D at ISO 1600, with a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens at 50mm, f/4.0.

"Twilight" is a panoramic image composed of three single exposures of 20 seconds each ~ © Herbert Raab

When bright planets align in the sky, Herbert feels it's always a great time to do some night photography. In this image, Venus and Jupiter form an eye-catching pair in the evening twilight. Some of the brightest stars in the sky appear left of the two planets, including Betelgeuse and Riegel in the constellation Orion, as well as Sirius, Procyon and Aldebaran. This composite pano was taken with a Canon EOS 550D at ISO 1600, and the Tokina 11mm lens @ f/4.0, with a Cokin P830 diffuser.

"River of Stars" over an alpine lake in Grebenzen-Zirbitzkogel (Styria, Austria) ~ © Herbert Raab

 The Milky Way is sometimes described as "a river of stars". In this picture, it looks as if a boat would be ready for a ride on that river of stars. In a dark, moonless night, the Milky Way can be a spectacular sight. "Unfortunately," laments Herbert, "An increasing number of people who live under light-polluted skies have never seen the Milky Way." This is a single, 60 second exposure, taken with a Canon EOS 550D, at ISO 3200, using a Sigma 10mm fisheye lens @ f/2.8.

Technique and Tools: "Interestingly, many people think that night images require heavy image processing. Actually, that is not the case. In most cases, some tweaks during the RAW-conversion is all I do --with color balance and noise reduction being the most important," says Raab. He uses Adobe Camera Raw as his main post processing software, with ImageStacker for stacking star trail images, and PTGui for blending panoramas. Other than his Canon EOS 550D (A.K.A. the Rebel T2i in the USA, and the EOS Kiss X4 in Japan), he finds his Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 wide angle lens, with the Cokin P830 diffuser in front, as his most valuable pieces of equipment.

Balancing life and photography: Herbert considers being at the right place at the right time as his biggest challenge in doing TWAN photography. "Considering the facts that I have a full daytime job, a family with three small kids, and that the weather here in central Europe is not always very cooperative, every night I can spend under the stars is a small miracle by itself," reports Herbert.

TWAN photography giving balance to life: He has observed that watching the stars slowly move across the sky is a counterpart to the busy, fast-paced world around us. Herbert sometimes philosophies about the photons that have crossed the universe for hundreds or thousands of years, that are now captured by his camera. "Every time I look at those photos that I took in such a night, the calmness returns," he says.

More of Herbert Raab's photography can be found on his Flickr Photostream.

Dylan MacMaster: Pining away at the Stars

Anthony Lake, Oregon ~ © Dylan MacMaster

Dylan MacMaster is one of the best self-taught, amateur night photographers I know. Dylan is an engineer and currently lives with his wife and three children in Boise, Idaho.

Virtually all of MacMaster's nightscapes are single exposures. He rarely, if ever, produces a night scene where he's combined two or more images in post production. He works hard to get everything in one shot. The above photo is a good example of his technique.

The star trails were produced with one 30-minute time exposure, using a 17mm lens @ f/4.0 (ISO 200) on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. During this exposure he did light-painting (for 45 seconds) on the little rocky island of pine trees with his LED headlamp.

Dylan ran a test beforehand to determine the light-painting exposure. Here's the 66-second version, which has a interesting, minimalist nature of its own:

66-second, light-painted test exposure for the rock island ~ © Dylan MacMaster

After this test, MacMaster decided to reduce the final light-painting time to 45 seconds (during the 30-minute time exposure that recorded the star trails). While waiting for the time exposure to record the trails, he sat down and wrote these words:

"The beauty of this night is almost impossible to put onto words. The stars shine above and the brightest wink their reflections in the glass-like water below. The sound of rushing water comes to me across the lake as the winter's snow-melt cascades down the mountain. A chorus of frogs creates a symphony in the night and there is just enough breeze so you can feel it, but not enough to disturb the pristine mirror that is Anthony Lake. This will likely be one of my most memorable nights out shooting."

 ...and it was...

Like Dylan, I've come to appreciate another wonderful world that awaits us under these starry night canopies.  It seems like our senses are heightened by the cool night air and the majesty of the infinite universe overhead.

Epilogue: Dylan entered the top photo into the Western Idaho State Fair last year and won 1st place in "Night Scenes" category.