The Totem Pole, Monument Valley by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The Totem Pole, Monument Valley, Utah. I am planning to lead a Landscape Astrophotography workshop in Monument Valley in June 2018, a 3 day workshop on June 7, 8, and 9 (Thursday through Saturday), and potentially a 4 day workshop June 11 through 14 inclusive. Sunday, June 10 (the in-between day) will be a "bonus day" for any participant who wants another night of shooting. So you can get in 4 nights of shooting in the first workshop and 5 nights in the second. I am trying to judge interest to determine whether to add the second workshop. Max of 6 participants in each workshop. Let me know you if you are interested in the comments below. Comments are non-binding, lol. This workshop will be run by Worldpix, a charity organization, and all profits will go to charity, so your participation will be helping a good cause. I will be donating my time in leading the workshop. The idea is to have fun doing photography and aide a good cause at the same time. We will cover planning night shoots, photographing the Milky Way (and landscape at night), Low Level Lighting, and processing Milky Way photos, with emphasis on single exposure acquisitions. Cheers, Wayne For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.
The Ears of the Bear by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This is Bears Ears National Monument, and these are the unusually symmetric and matching Bears Ears Buttes, the Buttes for which the new National Monument was named. I suspect most people are now aware that President Trump has made it one of his missions to eliminate or reduce some of the National Monuments, this being one. Sigh... This is located in southern Utah, and this part of the monument lies very near Natural Bridges National Monument, which is better known. The are around Bears Ears is mostly high desert on the Colorado Plateau. The Colorado Plateau is huge, occupying large portions of 4 states around the 4 corners region. It averages about 5,000 - 6,000 feet elevation, and there are numerous canyons cut into the plateau, including the Grand Canyon. This portion of Bears Ears is different though. You drive up through the pass between the 2 Buttes which is about 8,000 - 9,000 feet. Once you get over the pass you emerge into lush alpine meadows and a forested landscape that seems completely different from the surrounding area. There are shallow ponds which you do not see elsewhere. I was on a mission to get a panorama of the two Bears Ears Buttes with the Milky Way between them. This proved somewhat difficult because there were so many trees. Anyway, I spend a day driving down barely identifiable tracks through a beautiful wooded landscape until I found this spot. I returned the next new moon to capture this panorama. At this time of the photo I thought it was a bust, but it came out OK after all. I would have liked to move a few feet to the left for perfect symmetry, but there was deep ravine present. As an aside, the days of scouting and looking for places like this are some of my most pleasant days ever. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Dunes by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Located near Monument Valley. We were introduced to this very remote place by out guide, Quanah Parker from Majestic Monument Valley tours. We (Eric Gail and myself) would never have know that this place existed without his excellent guiding. Single Exposure, Nikon 810A, 24 mm, f 2.0, ISO 10,000, 15 sec. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
To Walk a Pale Land by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook First in a series from the Ah-Sie-Sle-Pah Wilderness in the New Mexico Badlands. The area is a unusual sculptured landscape that looks as if a master photographer had turned the saturation down to "1". The appearance is even more pale than pictured here, as it's hard to reproduce the appearance. The ridges , ravines, and mudstone hoodoos are bleached of color, looking bland in color in the day, but surreal at night. Single Exposure, 14 mm,f 2.8, 25 sec., ISO 12,800. There is lighting with Low Level Lighting, LLL, with a single small Goal Zero Micro Lantern, turned down to low, about 30 m to the left. It doesn't take much! For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Spiderweb Arch, Hunts Mesa by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This is Spiderweb Arch on Hunt's Mesa, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Utah and Arizona. this is a relatively little know arch to the general public. predominantly because it is so hard to get to. The drive to Hunt's Mesa is an adventure in itself, with deep sand and rocky poorly defined tracks. In many areas the term "roads" would be an exaggeration. You also need a local guide. This double arch is huge. It makes Double Arch in Arches National Park look modest in comparison. For scale please look at the small bright light in the right lower area of the photo. You might need to enlarge the photo, but there is a photographer there, Eric Gail, sitting by his tripod on a small ledge taking photos. He is virtually lost within the enormity of the cavernous space. There is some distortion from trying to capture the inside of a sphere onto a rectangular photo. The two opening at the top are overhead. The roof opening on the right is considerably larger than the one on the left, but I am closer to the one on the left making it look as large. I had to move far left in the arch to include the Milky Way. Iy took longer than expected to figure out just how to include the whole arch within a photo. It would not fit on a 14 mm panorama vertically or horizontally. I finally captured it as a horizontal 12 mm fisheye panorama. Many thanks to our guide Quanah Parker from Majestic Monument Valley Tours. He is a night photographer himself, and I probably would not have been able to climb the steep 45 degree walls without his help. When we arrived in the dark, it was like "you want me to do what?, lol. He got me up into the arch however, and then it was just a matter of trying to prevent your camera, tripod, and camera bag from sliding down the slope. If you want to see places like this at night, Google " Majestic Monument Valley Tours, and ask for Quanah Parker. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
The Sand Worm by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Single Exposure, Nikon 810A, 14-24 lens, 22 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec., ISO 12,800 The Sand Worm, New Mexico Badlands. For all the sci-fi fans out there, this was Inspired by the novel DUNE by Frank Herbert, cited in 2003 as the best selling sci-fi book of all time. Wandering the desert at night a pale apparition rose from the desert floor, and in the dim light I immediately I recalled the giant Sand Worms of the book Dune. In the dark it's one of those times when chills go down your spine (or maybe it was just the cold. lol). The Sand Worms were mysterious giants that lived beneath the sands on the desert planet Dune (Arrakis), and produced the spice Melange, the most valuable substance in the universe. If you like sci-fi at all, this is one of the best reads ever, highly recommend! From the Book: " I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Silhouette by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Nikon 810A, f 2.8, 30 sec, 14 mm, ISO 12,800. There is focus stacking, one photo focused on the foreground, one on the sky. The sky photo was taken about 1 hour before the foreground photo from the same location. We had a super trip to White Mesa Arch led by @quanah_photography and @jacindawilleto. We had finished shooting this massive arch and decided to add some "people pics" and Jacinda posed as the perfect model for the shoot. Thanks! For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Sipapu Bridge by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Sipapu Bridge, Natural Bridges National Monument Sipapu Natural Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah, USA. The natural bridge is huge. Those are full trees under the bridge. The arch of the bridge is massive. Hiking down to the bridge at night is like hiking down into a magical land. The arch of bridge is 225 feet or 68 m wide, and the height is 144 feet, 44m. You hike down about 600 feet, 183m into the canyon along a dark trail. Suddenly you realize you have arrived, and looking up see a massive stone arch towering above your head, dwarfing all that is around, and making you feel very, very small. Single exposure for the sky, stacked exposures in camera for the foreground, taken consecutively from the same spot. Hope you enjoy! For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Aztec Priestess by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Single Exposure, Aztec, New Mexico. 24 mm, f 1.6, ISO 6400, 15 sec. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Target Ruins by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Ancestral Puebloan (also called Anasazi or the Cliff Dwellers) Ruins called Target Ruins in an alcove in Butler Wash in SW USA. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Boot Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Boot Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. Nikon D810A Camera, 14-24 mm lens, 24 mm, f 2.8, 30 sec., ISO 10,000. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more info about this technique please see www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Tower of Babel by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Tower of Babel, Arches National Park, Utah. Nikon D810A Camera, 14-24 mm lens, 24 mm, f 2.8, 20 sec., ISO 8000. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more about this technique please see lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Kiss the Sky by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Bristlecone Pine in the Ancient Bristlecone Pone Forest, California. Single exposure. Nikon 810A camera, 14-24 mm lens, 20 mm, f 2.8, 20 sec., ISO 12,800. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL), lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Joshua Tree at Night by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Joshua Tree National Park, California. Canon 1Dx camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens with an adaptor, f 2.8, ISO 6400. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more about this technique see lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne
Cedar Breaks Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This is a panorama made of 2 sets of 13 vertical images from the Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. This is less well known as compared to the "Big 5" National Parks in Utah, but is a remarkably beautiful place. It resembles a huge eroded bowl or huge geode cracked open exposing innumerable red to orange hoodoos. Breathtaking! It is very close to Cedar City and Zion National Park. This is a blend of 2 panoramas, taken back to back and with the tripod unchanged in position. The sky images were taken at 18 mm, 20 sec., f 2.8 and ISO 12,800. The foreground was taken at 18 mm, ISO 3200, 300 seconds and f 2.8. The images were blended in photoshop. For anyone counting, lol, the foreground images took a little over an hour at 5 minutes apiece. Sitting around and quietly staring at the sky for an hour can be very pleasant. :-) For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
The Alien Throne by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The Alien Throne, New Mexico Badlands. Nikon D810A, 14-24 mm lens, 14 mm, f 3.2, 25 sec., 6400. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
It's a Long Way From Here To There by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Bryce Canyon National Park. Canon 6D Camera, 16-35 mm lens, f 2.8, 20 mm, ISO 6400. Single Exposure. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
Starlight Tufas by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Starlight Tufas at Mono Lake. Single Exposure. Nikon D810A Camera, 14-24 mm lens, 17 mm, 20 sec., ISO 12,800. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
The Two Legged Hoodoo by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Valley of Dreams, New Mexico. Nikon D810A camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, at f 2.8, 14 mm, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. There is lighting with Low Level Lighting. For a tutorial please look here: www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
The Two Legged Hoodoo by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Valley of Dreams, New Mexico. Nikon D810A camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, at f 2.8, 14 mm, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. There is lighting with Low Level Lighting. For a tutorial please look here: www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
Cyclops Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Panorama of 11 vertical images Nikon 810A, 14-24mm lens, 16 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec, ISO 10,000, This is a panorama of Cyclops Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. I had been there in August before, and the Milky Way was better centered over the arch. This trip was in June, and it was harder than I expected to get the core centered over the arch. So we "resorted" to placing the stone arch under the arch of the MW. It worked out better than expected. There is a small light panel under the arch with the light damped down very low. There is another light panel off to my left. For a tutorial on this kind of lighting (LLL) see lowlevellighting.org. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
Bisti Badlands by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The badlands of New Mexico are a fabulously sculpted and otherworldly place. There is Low Level Lighting (LLL) with LED Light Panels, dimmed very low to near starlight intensity and left on for the entire exposure. The idea is to add subtle lighting to accent detail. Royce Bair and myself have created a public service website, www.lowlevellighting.org, to explain Low Level Lighting. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
Joshua Tree by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook A Night in Joshua Tree. A photo from the my archives, reprocessed. For more images like this please take a look at my website here .
A Vast Eroded Land by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, USA. This panorama was done a little differently than usual. The landscape images were taken under a setting moon (waxing, 50%) approx. 1 hour before moonset. All images were taken at 24 mm. The foreground was taken at f/2.8, 10 sec., ISO 6400. The sky ws taken 2 hours later, on a hour after moonset at f/2., 20 sec., and ISO 12,800. There were 10 vertical images taken at 24 mm for the sky and foreground. Images combined in LR and processed in PS. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
A Night with the Goblins by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Hoodoos in Goblin Valley, Utah. There is lighting with LLL (Low Level Lighting) . This is not light painting but is very dim constant light that is left on and attempts to match starlight in intensity, typically done with light panels on tripods. One advantage is that it creates little or no visible light pollution and does not destroy your night vision. You cannot even see the light until your eyes become dark adapted, and then you can barely see it. You can still enjoy the wonders of the night sky. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
Three Sisters, Together for Eternity by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The Three Sisters, Goblin Valley State Park, Utah. There is lighting with LLL (Low Level Lighting) . This is not light painting but is very dim constant light that is left on and attempts to match starlight in intensity, typically done with light panels on tripods. One advantage is that it creates little or no visible light pollution and does not destroy your night vision. You cannot even see the light until your eyes become dark adapted, and then you can barely see it. Please see: www.lowlevellighting.org Why Care? Arches and Canyonlands Nat’l Parks have recently banned light painting for workshops in 2017 and may ban all night photography in 2018. LLL is less disruptive and invasive. Arches officials are considering the lower impact of @lowlevellighting and need further input. It is up to us to define LLL as a different technique, differing from Flash Photography or Light Painting, so it can be judged on its own merits. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
The Long View by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Mobius Arch in the Alabama Hills of California. Panorama of 11 verticle photos, 19mm, f/2.8, 20 sec., ISO 12,800. There is lighting with LLL (Low Level Lighting) . This is not light painting but is very dim constant light that is left on and attempts to match starlight in intensity, typically done with light panels on tripods. One advantage is that it creates little or no visible light pollution and does not destroy your night vision. You cannot even see the light until your eyes become dark adapted, and then you can barely see it. Please see: www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne
The Elephant Walks at Night by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This is a panorama of Elephant Rock in The Valley of Fire State Park, in Nevada, USA. The light on the horizon is the rising moon. Las Vegas is nearby, but somewhat behind me and off to my right. There are approx. 8 vertical images taken at 14mm, f/2.8, 20 sec., and ISO 8000. Taken with a Nikon 14-24 mm lens. Happy New Year! Here's wishing you all beautiful skies for shooting in 2017! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne Thank you for all the kind comments I have received today!
Echos of Long Forgotten Times by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Valley of Dreams, New Mexico Badlands, USA. Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne
Kiss the Sky by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Sunset Arch in the Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument in Utah, USA. This was taken during a workshop with Royce Bair (highly recommended!). Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne