Spring-in-Grand-Teton-NP
This is a 6 vertical photo Panorama taken one dark night at the Oxbow bend
This is a 6 vertical photo Panorama taken one dark night at the Oxbow bend
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Feb, 2015Views
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Awards
Top Shot Award 22
Contest Finalist in Our National Parks Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Nature By Night Photo Contest
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simonesheridyn
December 13, 2015
wow amazing. love this sooo much :). can't wait to try something like this one day :) awsome work
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park.Time
I took this picture a little before 3am. I had to go to the metadata to find the time because I was shooting in this spot from about 1am until a bit after sunrise.Lighting
Anything to share about lighting...there was none. This was taken during a new moon and the glow that is seen on the horizon on the right is city light from what I believe is Idaho Falls about 100 miles away. The Milky Way was the brightest I have ever seen.Equipment
This photo was taken before I had the money to upgrade a lot of my equipment. I used a relatively cheap promaster tripod, a cable release, Nikon d610, a homemade portrait orientation panorama mount, and an old 20mm 2.8 lens.Inspiration
I decided several years ago that I wanted to be much better photographer and I figured the best way to do that was to learn night photography. It demands much more knowledge than your average sunrise shot. Understanding how ISO, Aperture,and Shutter speed relate to each other. What a nodal point is. How to use your camera by touch vs sight. This photo was taken after spending 4 days shooting in Utah. We were heading north to go home and stopped in Jackson for the night. On the way back to our room after dinner I looked up and saw a totally clear sky. I looked at my wife and she just said "I'll see you for breakfast." For those of you that have not been there before the most common sign was "Be bear aware". I know because I illuminated several with my flashlight (signs that is). It was a surreal experience being out there alone in the total darkness and silence that night.Editing
Every night shot has to have some post work. Most of the time I start out with the white balance, then noise, then crop. Through a lot of trial and error I developed a brush preset in lightroom that I use for the milky way. This photo was actually a 6 photo stitch done in photoshop.In my camera bag
That depends on what bag I have. I currently use a Nikon d610. I try to travel by motorcycle as much as possible then I always have 70-300 mounted and in my tank bag. The normal everyday backpack has a nikon 14-24 2.8, nikon 30-70 2.8, tamron 150-600 and a 60mm macro. A manfrotto tripod with a really right stuff BH 55 ball head (I highly recommend!). This small backpack is rather heavy. My other bag carries everything and will barely pass the carry on requirements for airlines.Feedback
If you want to do night photography the best thing to do is as much research as you can stand and then shoot with someone else who does it. Understand when to shoot such as different phases of the moon and when the galactic center of the Milky Way is best viewed. Be prepared to take hundreds of really bad shots. I seem to always take one of my lens cap by accident but it too can be useful as a dark frame. Don't be discouraged learn from each outing. One thing that will make life so much easier it if you don't fight the light at night. If there is light from a house, car, city, hiker, or forest fire use it. You can not change it. See how it can make a positive impact on your photo.
