Photoblog 2.0

Star Trawler 2, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is my first, and shortest, exposure of the Point Reyes boat the other night. As I explained in my original story about the star trawler, I was surprised to find the apparently monchromatic moonlight producing such vibrant colors.

The longer exposure was intended to produce star trails, but I like the effect here too: of stars more the way we see them.

The pair of photos illustrates a spread of aperture-shutter speed combinations, both at essentially the same exposure value: from 1,204 seconds at f/22 at the long end to 30 seconds at f/3.5 at the short end. (”Long” and “short” refer to time.) Since depth of field is not an issue in these photos, the contrast is a good illustration of the differing way exposure time treats objects in motion (the stars).

[Nikon D300, 18-200mm VR zoom lens at 18mm (27mm in 35mm terms), 30 seconds at f/3.5 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Star Trawler 1, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is a 1,204 second (or about twenty minute) exposure of the wrecked fishing trawler Point Reyes. I’ve photographed this boat before, but never at night.

There was a bright moon in the sky, and as I walked across the mud flats behind the Inverness General Store, my fear was that all that moonlight would detract from the starlight. As I set up my tripod, polka music came faintly from the Czech restaurant in Inverness. Vladimir’s, it seems is still run by 78-year-old Vlad, and according to this review sometimes features live music from the old country, which must have been what I was hearing. Somehow, the music seemed to fit the slightly sad scene of the wrecked boat forever grounded on the mudbank.

As I began running test exposures, it became clear from my review in the LCD that my fears that moonlight would render colors monotonic were misplaced. It’s true that the stars were not as bright in the sky as they would have been on a moonless night. But the moonlight brightly lit the dark mass of the trawler (helped along in this exposure, I confess, with a little judicious light painting with my head lamp). The moonlight also created the reflections in the water in the foreground. If you look closely, you’ll even see reflected star trails.

And the astounding thing was that to my eye the world lit by moonlight was close to monochromatic, but the sensor picked up things with the vivid colors you see here.

For this long exposure, I stopped the lens down to f/22, with the idea of picking up as much star motion as I could.

[Nikon D300, 12-24mm zoom lens at 13mm (19.5mm in 35mm terms), 1,204 seconds at f/22 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Two things are special to me about wandering the night with my digital camera. The first is the way I experience night. The second is the way a digital sensor can reveal colors and shapes in spite of apparent darkness.

As a wanderer in the darkness, I enjoy more freedom of the hills than those who must rush back to trailheads, cars, and lit houses as dusk approaches. There are few humans out and about at night (although there are many animals to be seen and heard). Fellow human travelers in the darkness greet each other like the explorers they are: aliens in a vast territory as strange to most people as the depths of the ocean or the reaches of space. Alone in the darkness of night, the stars wheel and individual car lights make a big impression as in this twenty minute exposure of Zion Canyon.

View this image larger. Read the back story featuring this image.

Some early experiments with digital photography at night taught me that sensors pick up light waves beyond the ranges of human perception. It still astounds me that these photos of Point Reyes were taken in almost complete darkness. Well after sunset, there’s radiation our eyes can’t see bouncing off water, cliffs, and sky. This makes the combination of night wandering and digital photography unbeatable.

While digital photography at night in the city doesn’t involve the heroic exposure extremes of nature photography at night, there still are unexpected and unusual rewards.

If you are interested in learning more about night photography, I invite you to join me for a weekend of photography fun with like-minded souls here in Berkeley May 2-4, 2008 under the auspices of Digital Stop. This is a rare opportunity to experience the passion, joy, and freedom of night photography under the guidance of an expert! Here’s the link for on-line course registration and the workshop description:

Night photography has always been an area for creative experimentation. With the advent of digital photography, and its expanded dynamic range and light sensitivity beyond the visible spectrum, Harold Davis, the creator of www.digitalnight.us, takes workshop participants into the digital night.

During an orientation session, techniques, equipment, and night safety issues are covered. Moving outdoors, workshop participants will create night-time captures. Regrouping the following day, digital post-processing of night captures in Photoshop will be thoroughly demystified. Work will be evaluated in the context of personal creative goals. A second night shoot gives participants the opportunity to put into practice the night skills they have learned. We will learn to make spectacular photographs of the San Francisco skyline at night, as well as quieter photos of the landscape of the night by starlight.

Night covers the globe half the time. Surprisingly to many, photographic opportunities with digital equipment are as exciting during night as the day. Awake to the freedom of the night! Bring your energy and creativity, and expect to have a great time. You’ll go home with great images and the skills to capture night photos while the rest of the world sleeps.

Related link: Digital Night by Harold Davis.

So It Begins, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

The lunar eclipse a few nights ago was already beginning when I got to Inspiration Point. Later, as the eclipse got fuller, it would be an issue of finding gaps in the cloud coverage.

But to start with, the issue was to avoid overexposing the moon, surprisingly bright and still glowing with reflected sunlight, in a sky that wasn’t fully dark. Fortunately, I’ve had enough bad experience with washed out and overexposed moons to know to stop this one way down compared to the camera’s light reading.

[Nikon D300, 600mm in 35mm terms, 1/15 second at f/8 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Lunar Eclipse, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

A full lunar eclipse was scheduled just after moon rise in the early evening in the Bay area. My hope, foiled by roiling cloud cover blowing in through the Golden Gate, was to photograph from Marin Headlands with San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge as background.

Instead I headed east to Inspiration Point in Tilden Park in the coastal range. Parking the car, I hiked in a mile or so to a ridge with a great view of the show. As the evening got dark it grew cold, and the clouds covered the moon. Even so, I got in a shot or two and enjoyed the spectacle and solitude.

[Nikon D300, 600mm in 35mm terms, 1 second at f/5.6 and ISO 400, tripod mounted.]

Winter Moon and Cherry Leaves, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Christmas eve we had lots of family over, a turkey dinner, and the table groaned. Later, after almost everyone had gone home, and it was time to get the kids to bed, I saw the winter moon rising over the hills. I took a fancy to photographing the rising moon through the leaves of our decorative Japanese cherry tree. Satiated with food and with my mind on family I was almost going to pass on it. But every time I haven’t tried for a photo that took my fancy, I’ve regretted it.

I packed my kit and went outside with Julian while Phyllis got Nicky and Mathew to bed.

With Julian giving me advice, I started shooting the moon through the winter leaves of the decorative cherry tree (I planted it about the time Julian was born).

I boosted the ISO up to 3,200 for my first shots, focused at infinity for the moon, and hoped for the extreme low noise that I’ve been getting with my new D300. But the best image in the series turned out to be this, shot conventionally at ISO 100 and 15 seconds, and focused on the branch of the tree. Focusing closer at a wide-open aperture made the moon–which was going to blow out highlights completely if I retained any foreground detail–huge, abstract, and round.

Related story: Moon Roll.

[300mm in 35mm terms, 15 seconds at f/4.2 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

I’ll be leading a hands-on workshop on digital night photography from May 2-4, 2008 under the auspices of Digital Stop in Berkeley, California. Please consider joining me for a fun and exciting weekend.

View this image larger. Read the back story featuring this image.

Course Description

Night photography has always been an area for creative experimentation. With the advent of digital photography, and its expanded dynamic range and light sensitivity beyond the visible spectrum, Harold Davis, the creator of www.digitalnight.us, takes workshop participants into the digital night.

During an orientation session, techniques, equipment, and night safety issues are covered. Moving outdoors, workshop participants will create night-time captures. Regrouping the following day, digital post-processing of night captures in Photoshop will be thoroughly demystified. Work will be evaluated in the context of personal creative goals. A second night shoot gives participants the opportunity to put into practice the night skills they have learned. We will learn to make spectacular photographs of the San Francisco skyline at night, as well as quieter photos of the landscape of the night by starlight.

Night covers the globe half the time. Surprisingly to many, photographic opportunities with digital equipment are as exciting during night as the day. Awake to the freedom of the night! Bring your energy and creativity, and expect to have a great time. You’ll go home with great images and the skills to capture night photos while the rest of the world sleeps.

More info
Register

Desert Night, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

This is the last photo I took during my all-night vigil in the desert. The photo looks generally southwest, up towards the crest of the Sandstone Ridge.

My last battery gave out after the thirty minute exposure had finished, but before the camera had finished processing it. My speculation is that the odd purple fringing at the corners was caused by this interuption.

[This photo: 18mm in 35mm terms, about thirty minutes at f/4 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Lost in the Desert, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

I took this photo from the platform where my night ramblings on the way back from the Wave ended because I realized I was lost (here’s the back story).

As I tried to keep warm through the night I paced ever smaller circles and drained my batteries in couple of last thirty minute exposures (this one is the penultimate photo).

Had I been able to see the landscape as well as my digital camera captures it, I would have realized I was standing on the Sandstone Ridge (marked on my map), and that my direction out was across the low rise in the middle right of this photo. I might also have noted the depth of the chasm right below me.

[This photo: 18mm in 35mm terms, about thirty minutes at f/4 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Zion Canyon at Night, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

On my way down the Angels Landing trail in the dark, I stopped at a bend where Zion Canyon spread out before me. Looking back and up, I photographed star trails against the massive rock walls.

Looking down at Zion Canyon, the darkness seemed almost complete. I used a high ISO test shot to establish the exposure value of the situation, and then burnt my battery to the bottom of the tank with this thirty minute wide-open exposure at ISO 200.

Cosmic Swirls, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

As dusk darkened to night, my exposures got longer and longer until the swirl trails of the stars echoed the swirls in the rock of the Wave.

To take this photo, I needed to wait until darkness out in the desert with the ordeal that was to come. But, I say, since all’s well that ends well, well worth it!

Looking Up, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Coming down from Angels Landing in the dark, I paused after the set of switchbacks known as Willy’s Wiggles. Looking back, I saw Angels Landing silhouetted (on the right). I exposed for about twenty minutes, with the camera pointed close to due north (which accounts for the exaggerated circular motion of the star trails).

[18mm in 35mm terms, 1199 seconds at f/4 and ISO 200, tripod mounted.]

Star Trails from Tunnel View, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

Driving into Yosemite on a clear November evening, I stopped at Tunnel View for this 25 minute exposure from the classic Ansel Adams view spot.

With night photos, the color depends on your white balance setting (star light is not sun light). Night photography utterly baffles auto white balance settings, so the best bet is to correct the white balance in post-processing.

Fog and Stars, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

After the sun went down, the stars came out. I thought a photo of star trails above a fog bank would be unusual, so I made this three minute exposure.

Then a park ranger came along, and told us we needed to be off the slopes of Mount Tamalpais 15 minutes after sunset. Makes it kind of tough on a night photographer.

Related image: Star Trails.

[24mm in 35mm terms, 180 seconds at f/9 and ISO 100, tripod mounted.]

Note to readers: please bear with me, I’m on a photo trip, and I won’t be posting for a while. Hopefully my work while I’m gone will be worth the wait!

Lake Tenaya at Night, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.

On a memorable evening close to the 2007 summer solstice, I climbed down from the top of Lembert Dome as the sun set. On my way to the Olmsted Point area to photograph star trails over Half Dome, I stopped to photograph the shores of Lake Tenaya by starlight. This was a 3 1/2 minute exposure with the ISO boosted to 640.

The photo below shows the view of Lake Tenaya from more-or-less the same spot in daylight hours.

Besides ambient starlight, you can see a couple of exogenous light sources in this photo: car headlights in the distance on Route 120, and the light trail of a satellite traversing up the right-hand side of the sky.

[24mm in 35mm terms, 210 seconds at f/4 and ISO 640, tripod mounted.]

View this image larger.