I mentioned in my last post that Joshua Tree National Park was a pit stop along the way to Death Valley. I really wanted to do some night photography at Arch Rock. Back in 1996, I spent a spring break in college here and visited many of the main attractions, but if I visited the arch, I simply could not recall. Damn memory loss!
Kendra and I pulled into camp, and quickly found a spot. I was nervous that a campground with only 15 sites and no reservation system might be full. We were in luck.
Now, the arch is a whopping 0.5 miles from the campground, even closer in some spots. Needless to say, there was a steady stream of visitors during the day. I took the time to simply see how the arch looked through my fisheye lens vs. my ultrawide zoom. I really liked the way the distortion of the fisheye lens accentuated the curves of the arch, and since that lens almost never gets used on dry land, I went with it.
As the moon rose, I got low to the ground and positioned my camera to capture the moon as it got pinched between the arch adn the rock below which helped create the burst. I tried lots of settings, and as this was my first time trying such a style of photography, I can't honestly say ISO 800 was the best choice. The D300 is ok at this ISO, but some liberal noise reduction on the sky was used.
I really wished we had more time to spend in Joshua Tree. There are a myriad of huge boulder outcroppings which would make for amazing subjects, both for sunsets, sunrises, and night photography.
Nikon D300
Tokina 10-17mm fisheye @ 10mm
30sec @ f8, ISO 800
light painted with red LED flashlight, No HDR
Laurent T (aka thery_lg), and 745 other people added this photo to their favorites.
View 20 more comments
David M Hogan 33 months ago | reply
Saw the double page spread in National Geographic this month and wanted to offer my very hearty congratulations!!! Very cool. Well done!!!
Paul Porter Photography 33 months ago | reply
Hey Jim, first - very creative and well thought out image. Second - super big congrats on the Nat Geo entry. I just opened it up and there it was. I guess this really goes a long way to putting light painting on the map.
Keith Kamicar 33 months ago | reply
Congrats on the Nat. Geo spread!!
Wendy Eisenschmid 32 months ago | reply
Cool sunburst!
Adianna Price 32 months ago | reply
Outstanding picture~
號獃 32 months ago | reply
A truly outstanding shot!!! Fantastic!
ben-web 32 months ago | reply
Very cool !!
Bruce Bugbee 31 months ago | reply
Fantastic capture, Jim.
LornaTaylor 30 months ago | reply
Amazing shot!
nunnariteresa 29 months ago | reply
bellissima scultura naturale!!!!
Pan.101 28 months ago | reply
really beautiful
nasti29 28 months ago | reply
amazing image, perfect focus
Burton Dwight 27 months ago | reply
Fantastic!
larsvandegoor.com 26 months ago | reply
well what to say, it's just perfect
I saw this in the 600+ Faves group and Faved it.
GEO M I 24 months ago | reply
one of the nicer ones of this very male rock... : )
Adam Edwards Photography 22 months ago | reply
LOVE it, those colours contrasts are very special!
namra38 22 months ago | reply
Wow, you are an incredible photographer, very inspirational!
GEO M I 11 months ago | reply
must be rock yoga - or it's doing a somersault
JPBJr. 4 months ago | reply
Love it.
shaman_healing 9 days ago | reply
Perfect work!
greetings from shaman_healing