toxictabasco

Zabriskie Point

A night shot of Zambriske Point in Death valley. Facing West, during a full moon. Star stax time lapse for the background....
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A night shot of Zambriske Point in Death valley. Facing West, during a full moon. Star stax time lapse for the background.
Read less

Jul, 2015

Views

2851

Likes

+769

Awards

Zenith Award

Creative Winter Award

Curator's Selection

People's Choice in Star Trails & Timestack Photo Challenge

Featured

Contest Finalist in Get Out Photo Contest

Peer Award

+138

Absolute Masterpiece

+129

Superb Composition

+111

Top Choice

+93

Outstanding Creativity

+63

Superior Skill

+36

All Star

+23

Magnificent Capture

+14

Genius

Top Ranks

Top 10 rank

Top 10 rank week 1

Top 20 rank

Top 20 rank week 3

Top 20 rank week 2

Top 20 rank week 1

Top 10 rank

PRO+

An impressive image!

Thank you Stan.

Premium

An outstanding image. Great work!

thank you.

very interesting image, with star trails looking like meteors: getting stronger towards the finish. -- How did you do that. Can you tell us the trick?

It's a normal long exposure time lapse using StarStax, and a layered foreground.

There's other ways to do this as well in Photoshop, using lighter opacity layers and light blend.

Thanks, I'll look into varing the opacity along the layer edge. It'll take some experementation.

Fantastic shot toxictabasco! Your photo could very well adorn the cover page of a scifi bestseller! I spent a day in Death Valley last march but couldn't stay till sunset (sigh). Perhaps this year on my way to SF. Cheers from Montreal, Canada!

Thank you, I wish you the best, have a safe and great trip.

BRILLIANT CAPTURE!

Thank you.

One of the best i have seen in a long time. Wonderful composition.

Thank you.

Whoa....now that is a Contest Winner right there! Incredible Capture.

Thank you Athena.

Another Amazing shot!!

Thank you.

The light and contrast of natural earth and celestial elements is a winner

Superb capture!

PRO+

Great shot,.

PRO

Stunning shot! Good luck in Night sky challenge!

like it!

Love this absolutely gorgeous

PRO+

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING !!!

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Behind The Lens

Location

Thank you everyone who voted. And thank all of you who like, award, and comment on this photo. It's truly an honor to win a challenge and have the opportunity to share my story about this photo. The photo was shot at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park.

Time

It was shot in March of 2015. The foreground was shot during the early morning blue hour before sunrise. The StarStax trails were shot later that night at Dante's View facing the same direction.

Lighting

For this shot, I wanted to create a mood using dark color and contrast. Thus, I shot during the period just before sunrise. And the long exposure allows for a lot of detail and color in the landscape. During the night time lapse the moon had set and some clouds rolled in. It was still bright out and the horizon gave off a orange hue. Because there was so much illumination in the night, there were not many stars out. I had plans to shoot the time lapse longer, but up at Dante's View it was already below 38 degrees f., and the winds picked up to heavy gust over 30mph. So, I headed for lower ground at Zabriskie Point to spend the rest of the night.

Equipment

For landscapes, I almost always shoot on a tripod. For this shot I used a Nikon D7100 and Nikon 18-140mm lens for the foreground. And a Nikon D3300 for the time lapse with Tokina 12-28mm f/4 lens.

Inspiration

Prior to visiting Death Valley, I did some online research and saw a lot of amazing photos from the area's I'd planned to shoot. Photos of the night sky and sunsets were especially amazing. Thus, I wanted to create a similar exposure with night sky and twilight so that I could print it poster size, and hang it on my wall.

Editing

Yes, I do post process, and I always try to get as much correct in the camera while shooting. As well as shoot for the optimal exposure for processing. For this image I used Lightroom 5, and did the basic adjustments for clarity, contrast, exposure, and white balance. I also did the same for the 180 time lapse shots. Then, I processed all the time lapse photos for a video clip, as well as processing it in a software called StarStax. In StarStax, is where I assembled the image for the sky. At first the star trails were too long, so I only used about 40 photos, and ran the "comet trail" function with a short trail vs using long trails. The comet trail options creates a tapered star trail. I ran it through several times trying various adjustments and setting in StarStax to get a photo that would work well with the foreground. Next, I ran both the foreground and sky through Corel PaintShop Pro X7 to layer the foreground over the sky. Because it was shot in about the same area, the layers blended easily. Then, I brought it back into Lightroom for final small adjustments with a brush and grad filters, and export and archiving.

In my camera bag

Whenever I visit Death Valley, I bring a hiking day pack (for camera gear), and my photo and video gear. For the camera stuff: 2 tripods, 2 DSLRs, interval timer for time lapse, 3 zoom lenses. For video, a camera track slider video head, and a LUMIX LX100, and a Sony full HD Camcorder. All this along with sleeping gear, food and water, and emergency survival stuff.

Feedback

For those that want a similar experience, here are a few tips. Planning is essential when shooting landscape. Follow weather patterns, and always know about the environment you'll be in. Also, look at photos others have shot, look at the videos, and read up on the area. The National Park Service, has a lot of information about their parks. For the photography, get there early and RECON the area for compositions. Use the knowledge you have from the photos you've seen of the area, and find alternative areas to shoot from. Get there before or stay after the crowds have come and gone. Often the masses will leave the area right after sunset or get there just at the sunrise. During the twilight there are few shadows, as well as a lot of color and detail in the landscape, and less people around. Also, bring a tripod to take advantage of your cameras manual exposure. Remember, the perfect exposure is not often the optimal exposure when you create photography.

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Zabriskie Point

A night shot of Zambriske Point in Death valley. Facing West, during a full moon. Star stax time lapse for the background.... Read more

Behind The Lens

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A night shot of Zambriske Point in Death valley. Facing West, during a full moon. Star stax time lapse for the background....
Read more

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Earn coins, get amazing rewards. Join for free.