Cabin under the stars
After 6 hours of driving and temperatures below -20C - this was the only shot I was able to get. It was really challenging because the mist from the water refle...
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After 6 hours of driving and temperatures below -20C - this was the only shot I was able to get. It was really challenging because the mist from the water reflected the light from the cabin.
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Jan, 2016Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Lonely Cabin Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Around the World Photo Contest By Discovery
Contest Finalist in Night And Rule Of Thirds Photo Contest
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Spring Selection Award
Contest Finalist in Creative Composition Photo Contest Vol 2
Samsung NX500 Camera
Contest Finalist in My Best Winter Shot Photo Contest
Peer Award
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Magnificent Capture
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pauljudges
January 17, 2016
Join the conversation. Add a comment or even better, a critique. Let's get better together!
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charleshuff
February 25, 2016
Superb! I love the composition with the pines pointing up to the starry sky. It would be a great picture even if cropped to just above the mountain top, but the way you've framed it is perfect.
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Miltonuk2
March 22, 2016
Thought you had found Santa's lodge. Great shot, hope I can be as good one day. Stay warm.
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cgkreie
October 13, 2016
this is the most amazing thing i have ever seen.
this is my new favorite photo ever
this is my new favorite photo ever
RichardShore
November 16, 2016
This is beautiful! Gives a real sense of being there... Feel like I need to go grab my coat! Great work.
marcello_shots
January 25, 2017
Woooooaahhhh! I am speechless. This is straight out of a fairytale. Amazing!
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo at Emerald Lake, British Columbia, which is a 2.5 hour drive from my home. The driving distance is noteworthy because the night I took this photo I did 6 hours of driving and this was the ONLY photo that turned out!Time
There is nothing I love more than night photography. It is so peaceful to sit under the stars. I lose all sense of time when I'm shooting because I get so lost in the beauty of the night sky, and so enraptured by the incredible details that my camera can "see" but my eyes cannot. This image was taken just before midnight on January, 9th 2015.Lighting
This was one of the most challenging scenes I've ever tried to shoot because of the lighting. The light from the cabin was reflecting off of the mist rising up from the lake. I must have tried 50 different settings; this image happened to be the very last image I took. Just as I was pressing the shutter the mist cleared ever so slightly, and the light softened.Equipment
This image was taken with a Canon 6D using a Canon 16-35 mm lens, tripod mounted. I was also wearing enough warm layers to make an expedition to the arctic! It was -28 degrees celsius that night so warm clothing and boots were essential.Inspiration
I have been to this cabin several times during the day, and one other time at night. I knew it would look amazing under the stars but I swear this little cabin has it's own weather system - mostly cloudy and overcast. Every time I went there the cabin was under cloud, even when the weather called for clear skies. Of course the one night I managed to get out there when there wasn't any clouds it was -28C! It was worth it though; the photo turned out exactly as I imagined it would!Editing
For as hard as this shot was to get in camera, it was equally hard to process because it was a single image. The challenge was to edit in a way that the light from the cabin didn't over power the stars. I made all of basic adjustments in Light Room, then moved it to Photoshop where I toned down the light coming from the windows in the cabin. I then processed the colour using Nik software. Finally, I used an extension package in Photoshop to sharpen the image and compress it.In my camera bag
The first two things that I make sure are in my bag is an SD card and a battery. I hate to admit it but I was planning a shoot with a friend one night and realized only after driving for over an hour that I had forgotten my SD card... I then pack my Canon 6D and my two wide angle lenses - the Canon 16-35 mm and the Tokina 16-28 mm. The Tokina is indestructible. The wind caught my tripod and threw my camera, lens first, down an embankment and the Tokina didn't even get a scratch on it! When I'm not doing night photography, I also pack my Canon 70-200 mm (aka Big Bertha). That lens is absolutely amazing!Feedback
Night photography is never the same from one night to the next, or from one location to the next. People always ask me about settings and though I'm happy to share what settings I use (ISO 400, f2.8, 25 seconds for this shot), the best advice I can give is to just keep trying different settings. In this case I was trying to keep the shutter open long enough to get the stars without blowing out the light from the cabin. I wasn't kidding when I said I tried 50 different settings; the light was constantly changing as the mist rose and moved across the lake. I also tried taking one shot for the foreground and another for the stars, but in the end my best image was a single shot that took many, many tries to achieve. Have patience, try different settings, and dress for the weather!
