- Do you do workshops in Joshua National park where I can get such a pic?? - I'm on a learning curve!!
"Rockstar" - The Milky Way from Joshua Tree National Park
View Larger at www.ApertureAcademy.com
Here's the story about how it took me three days to capture this image and how Walmart helped!
...Of all my years of photography I've always had fun with night photography but never captured anything that excited me enough to publish, until recently.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend I found myself itching to get out and shoot, yet the majority of California was either under massive snow, or rain, and given I only had 5 days I couldnt venture too far, so I decided to head to Southern California which is an area of the state I've done the least amount of shooting.
I first went to Morro Bay thinking I'd worth the Southern California Coast but after arriving, scouting around and checking the weather, I quickly decided conditions were not optimal and headed inland. A went down to the Salton Sea, wasnt very inspired so made my way up to Joshua Tree National Park. Hard to believe but I'd never been there before and I liked what I saw, so I stayed the night.
I found this great little campsite which happened to be about 300 yards from a granite arch (the one pictured above). I shot it in the daylight, I shot it at sunset, but nothing inspired me so I went back out in the dark to do star trails. However, to my suprise, it was SO dark I could see the Milky Way very clearly with the naked eye, so I knew with a wide aperture and high ISO I could capture it with great detail given there was no light polution to supress the grandure!
I spent about two hours experimenting with different compositions, exposures, doing star trails, etc. I went back to the MoHo, downloaded the images and was less than thrilled with what I had captured. White balance was all wrong, I hadnt focused very well so it was soft in places...
It just plain sucked!
So the next night I went back out and tried again...experimenting with some new ideas and a better composition that I found in the daylight (it's very hard to compose in pitch black!)
But again, after reviewing the results I just wasnt happy. So, the next day, I drove to the nearest civilization and found a Walmart. I needed to change the color of my lantern...see, I bought one of those "green" lanterns that runs on batteries and uses florecent light bulbs. I typically use it for night shooting/hiking when I need to setup, etc, but had never really used it for light painting before. The color temperture is very cool so when I used it on the arch in pitch black it was WAY too bright to paint for the 2-3 seconds I neeeded and it was too direct...not to mention the cool colored light made the arch look terrible.
So back to Walmart...
I went to the Christmas section and found some colored plastic bags...I bought a red one, an orange and a yellow one then took them back to the MoHo where I proceeded to cut them up so I could wrap them around the latern, secured with rubberbands and I experimented with each one individually, as well as combinations of colors until I found what would work best.
I returned to the Arch in Joshua Tree just after sunset and setup, for the third time...but this time armed with all the right tools. It didnt take long and I was getting a great exposure of the Milky Way and light painting the arch with my Walmart color wrapped lantern...now all I had to do was wait for the Milky Way to be where I wanted it compositionally...which took nearly three and a half hours!
There I sat, in the pitch dark of Joshua Tree, it was 24 degrees, a light wind so it felt much colder...I can hear coyotes yipping in the distance (no, I didnt have a crockpot with me)...time goes very, very slow when you're waiting for the planet to spin!
See, the planet spins 15 degrees every hour, thus the wait so that the Milky Way would be just where I wanted it in the photo. Yes, I could have gone back to the MoHo and been warm and cozy but I didnt want to leave all my gear out there setup...nor did I want to tear it down and risk someone coming along and taking my spot, thus loosing all the setup work I had done for the composition.
FINALLY...the Milky Way has rotated into position. And I start shooting, for real this time.
Here's how I took the shot:
- Canon 1Ds Mark III
- Canon 15mm Fisheye
- f/2.8, full frame sensor at ISO 1600
- White Balance (2500K)
- I didnt want the stars to blur so you have to expose at about 25
seconds...any longer and the stars will start to streak, thus look
blurry.
But the trick was, I also needed to light paint without limiting the faint details of the milky way so I would expose for 22 seconds without the lantern light painting...using my iPhone I would start light painting at 22 seconds...then move the light from right to left to try and paint as evenly as possible. It took about 15 tries before I got what I was after, then I took another 5 or 6 just to be sure I had one to choose from later that might be slightly better than another.
So the result of the extremely cold white balance gave me the nice blue sky and the super warm light from the Walmart paper put the color in the granite arch that I was hoping for.
All in all, this image took more work and planning of any other image I've taken.
I hope you like it!
Comments and faves
Matt Granz Photography, Wherever I Roam, SF knitter, Davide-/-, and 1012 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Stephen Oachs (ApertureAcademy.com) (30 months ago | reply)
Last night we unveiled "Rockstar" at the Aperture Academy Holiday Open House Party!
Wherever I Roam (30 months ago | reply)
wow!! this is inspirational! thanks for sharing this awesome photo and your techinique
Matt Granz Photography (30 months ago | reply)
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You are invited to post this image to "Spectacular Landscape, invitation only"
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SF knitter (30 months ago | reply)
This is even better when viewed in person!
Shane Venem (30 months ago | reply)
I think all your work paid off nicely. It looks fantastic.
Davide-/- (30 months ago | reply)
Meravigliosa !!
Congrats Stephen !!
Patrick Leitz (30 months ago | reply)
Fantastic shot!!!
Rich Bitonti (30 months ago | reply)
Nice image and tech info... I shoot this arch quite a bit and your details will come in handy next time i head up there - great stuff!
Expressions by Christine (30 months ago | reply)
Congratulations....what an absolutely breathtaking photo and thanks for sharing your technical details as well!!! :o)
j_omohundro (30 months ago | reply)
Very, very nice...I applaud your patience and ingenuity.
ernie kaps (30 months ago | reply)
Awesome! Great comp and lighting on the rocks
GMills31 (30 months ago | reply)
Perfect light painting. I have been to this spot, but mine did not turn out very well. Thanks for the story of how you did this one I love it when people discuss their technique/adventure.
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Franco Marconi (30 months ago | reply)
splendida, molto affascinante
Waleed Almunayes «KWS» (30 months ago | reply)
well done
Jill Clardy (30 months ago | reply)
wow ! fabulous in every way; it took me about 2 seconds to decide to click the favorite button!
Konejita (30 months ago | reply)
This looks so cool and mighty wicked all framed up.
...Damian... (30 months ago | reply)
Tis a beauty, well worth the effort and experimentation.
clay.wells (30 months ago | reply)
this just kicked my butt.
johnchamilton (30 months ago | reply)
This knocks my socks off! Outstanding craftsmanship, Stephen, and thanks for the "making of" narrative!
AK_Hitecrednek [deleted] (30 months ago | reply)
Wow, worth the time and effort.
chris'pic's51 (30 months ago | reply)
Rock on dude! Killer
ShrubMonkey (Julian Heritage) (30 months ago | reply)
Stunning work
Eye of the Storm Photography (30 months ago | reply)
Outstanding capture and story.
jimberneike (30 months ago | reply)
Beautiful work, and thanks for sharing your story and the details of your exposure!
Robin Black Photography (30 months ago | reply)
FANTASTIC image, Stephen! So bummed that I couldn't make the party last night--I would've loved to see this one in person.
~*~...nicole...~*~ (30 months ago | reply)
love it!!
ImranAnwar (30 months ago | reply)
Awwwwwesome!
Eric Leslie (30 months ago | reply)
Lol, you were just strolling around, started in Moro Bay and just ended up in Joshua Tree? The shot is fantastic and I really appreciate hearing what went into the shot.
claudedelrieu21 (30 months ago | reply)
belle photo
LifeLover4 (30 months ago | reply)
Fantastic image and story! Good luck!
*~Dawn~* (30 months ago | reply)
YOU are a rockstar!!!! Had SO much fun last night--it think it was the best party yet! :-)
Jeffrey Sullivan (30 months ago | reply)
Nice shot. You're lucky the wind wasn't worse. I was there a few days earlier when temps were similar mid-20s, but there was a 30 knot wind. The tent was tied to the picnic table, but it broke from ! With wind chill below zero, I wasn't motivated to go shoot in the dark, especially after surviving the prior night's 60 MPH winds up in Mojave Preserve! I got sick of playing Eskimo that week and cut my photography trip short to go do something warmer: skiing. On the slopes it was also mid-20s, but with the sun shining, without wind, and getting exercise it was much, much warmer!
2k Photography (30 months ago | reply)
Ouch! WOW! I believe, my friend, this couldn't be done any better... You rocked this like you should have.. Nice!
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**MIAH** [deleted] (30 months ago | reply)
incredible shot stephen, that was an interesting story too, i'm so glad walmart was there for you as well. that's also incredible at 1600 iso you have no noise, my camera would look the same as your except those wouldn't be stars it would be noise. excellent capture and i hope that open house went well last night
tigric (Ana Stefanović) (30 months ago | reply)
haha fabulous! Both the photo and the title!
TMullenaux (30 months ago | reply)
Wow, your patience and creativity really paid off. Incredible image!
taunggyilady (30 months ago | reply)
Breathtakingly beautiful image!
Picsfor [deleted] (30 months ago | reply)
stunning - simple as that - stunning
GlobeTrotter 2000 (30 months ago | reply)
Amazing picture !
Muneera Al Qubaisi (30 months ago | reply)
Amazing... I can't say anythig... Amazing
AGrinberg (30 months ago | reply)
Awesome!
That is, the photograph and your perseverance.
Sorry I missed your party last night. Still on my list for next time.
corporallouis (30 months ago | reply)
What can one say that hasn't already been said? WOW . .
MarsW (30 months ago | reply)
This is truly spectacular - superb work
earthrhythms (30 months ago | reply)
I love it....it's stunning! I'm impressed with your persistence!
Eugene1959 (30 months ago | reply)
This is gorgeous
MarsW (30 months ago | reply)
Congratulations on getting published!
Have just saved your picture as a Fave to read the "method" later on - thanks for the info Stephen.
mwdiaz (30 months ago | reply)
An awesome shot for sure...even more so in person. Another great party last night, even if I didn't win the cruise!
MattyD90 (30 months ago | reply)
This is a great shot! Thanks for having us there last night, I had a great time.
MoodyGoat (30 months ago | reply)
Superb shot! I've never seen the Milky Way captured so brilliantly. Well worth the effort.
Joshua Tree is one of my favorites, altho most of the pictures I've gotten there are perfect only in my mind. If I could capture the howl of the coyotes (without having to shoot movies) I'd be a happy camper. Maybe it would help if I'd stay after dark.....
glness (30 months ago | reply)
Great photo and amazing story. You have much more ingenuity and patience than I ever will, but that is evident in the results. Wow!