Milky Way Above Turret Arch By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: The Milky Way Rises Behind Turret Arch In Arches

Moccasin Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Panorama, 4 images, 14 mm, f/2.8, 25 sec., ISO 8000 Moccasin Arch in Monument Valley. The Arch is a huge cavernous alcove with an opening in the side of the "roof". This is a photo of some of my fellow photographers taking photos within Moccasin Arch. I was taking photos of them while they were photographing the arch. It turned out that I liked this one more than my views looking straight outward from the arch. The photographers in the photo give you a sense of scale. The Arch is huge! A big thank you to Quanah from Majestic Monument Valley Tours for taking us there. Thank you! He is highly recommend if you want to take a night tour in Monument Valley (day tours also). Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

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

Great Barrier Island, NZ by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Beach Panorama on The Great Barrier Island, New Zealand. 14-24 mm lens, 15 mm, f/2.8, 30 sec., ISO 12,800, 14 vertical images. ________________________________________________ The 2 brighter dots beneath the middle Milky Way arch (one brighter than the other) are the Greater and Lesser Magellanic Clouds. They are dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way Galaxy. We do not see them from the Northern Hemisphere so I’m pretty excited to capture them. 😀

The Sailing Stones of Death Valley by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The Sailing Stones or Walking Rocks of the Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park, California, USA. The Playa is an extensive "dry" lake bed at a height of 1130 meters, 3608 feet, in Death Valley NP. It is 4.5 km long and 2.1km wide. The Moving Rocks have long been a mystery, leaving behind long tracks as they move without human or animal intervention. It's a fascinating and mysterious place at night. Cameras were set up to monitor them during the winter, and it is now thought that the stones move due to ice in the winter. A temporary pond can form and ice over. As the ice sheet breaks up the ice panels are blown by the wind and push the rocks along the semi frozen lake bed. This is a composite image with focus stacking, all taken at the same sitting and position. There is one exposure focused on the stars and distant mountains, one on the middle ground, and one on the stone, other camera factors unchanged. The rock was too close to get it all focused in one shot. Hope you enjoy, Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne

The Light of a Thousand Suns by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: I was honored to be on the Podcast "F-Stop Collaborate and Listen" with host Matt Payne. He interviews Landscape and Nightscape Photographers about a variety of topics. His relaxed style makes the podcasts enjoyable and interesting. He helps you see the people behind the photos. You can listen to my interview here: fstopandlisten.podbean.com This photo: "The Light of a Thousand Suns". This was a bit of a surprise. This is an Overlook of the Little Colorado River in the Grand Canyon before it joins the Colorado River. I had a good night shooting other sites along the Colorado River, and timed the Milky Way to be over this part of the canyon in the early a.m. When I got there the clouds had rolled in and I was about to pack it in for the night, but decided to give it a try anyway. I was surprised. The clouds were uniformly thin, thin enough for the light of the Milky Way to shine through and illuminate the clouds. The effect turned out to be pleasing, at least to me. This is a blend of a foreground image and a sky image. Foreground is a stack of 10 images taken at 14 mm, f 2.0, 30 sec., and ISO 3200. Sky image is from same spot at 14 mm, f 2.0, 20 sec., and ISO 12,800. 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. Website Instagram Facebook

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

To Walk a Pale Land: (at American Southwest) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ4JVp7hnjg/?igshid=19vm6zhe0ehr6

Abandoned Cathedral by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Abandoned Cathedral in Madagascar. This is the shell of an old abandoned cathedral in Madagascar. This was adjacent to a girls school and the priest was very nice to let us shoot there at night. There was no electricity in this region and the red glow on the horizon originates from multiple fires. The local people burn the fields to clear them and there are always multiple fires in the distance. Also bandits steal the cattle and set the villages on fire to keep the people from chasing them. 😳😬 This is a panorama of multiple vertical images. There is a Goal Zero lantern in the bell tower and a single light panel off to the right to provide Low Level Lighting on the outside. BTW, we had 3 armed guards at all times. Thanks to WorldPix and Ryan for setting up this trip! Thanks for looking! Wayne

Questions and Answers

What are some good places to shoot the Milky Way in the SW United States?

Question: I was wondering if you could offer up your recommendation on a getaway spot for Milky Way photography? Any issues at the national parks in Utah? I would travel either in June or September to avoid crowds....and hopefully a bunch of workshop photographers too. I loved wondering the beaches of the Pacific coast...I feel like I had them all to myself and access was relatively easy...and I'm trying to scope out locations for future trips that are the same....I don't want to be hiking 3 days into some crazy remote area for a milky way shot. Looking at your badlands shots and Joshua tree pics has me bouncing around with different options for sure. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated. 

Answer: Overall Utah and the area has limitless possibilities for dark night skies and astrophotography. I'll tell you good spots for good foregrounds. All of the areas I mention are good for dark night skies.  Just as a generalization, when I go there to do astrophotography I literally chase the clear skies to maximize the number of clear shooting nights. I rent a car and drive to wherever the clearest skies are predicted for the next few days.  The rental companies probably hate me. I usually fly into Salt Lake City or Las Vegas. I have found that the eastern part of California (Sierra Nevada Mtns), Utah, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon(really,really dark), and the NW corner on New Mexico (N.M. Badlands) can have very different weather, so if one area gets a bad weather front there is a good chance that one of the others will have clear skies. The longest drive is to Eastern California, but it is doable if you are going to be there a few days.

Anyway, if one spot clouds up, like Utah, you can go off to California or New Mexico (or vice versa) and have lots to photograph there.

Here are some ideas:

Utah:

 Arches National Park has wonderful iconic landmarks to photograph, and the good part is that there are lots of good spots that are relatively close together. May and June are best. Arches NP is getting crowded at night, but the only really "zoo" like scene is at Delicate Arch. I went there last summer and almost witnessed a fight. The other iconic places like Double Arch, Broken Arch, Balanced Rock, Landscape Arch, etc., do not get as much night traffic. Sometimes I see one other person there. Sometimes there are workshops, but you just go to another location to avoid them. There are lots of less well known arches that you will have to yourself.

My favorite park at night is Bryce Canyon NP. Occasionally you will see someone else out at night near the trailheads but you usually have the area to yourself. The trails are easy, and you can make endless photo ops. Shoot one spot and walk 200 meters and shoot another. Great place.

Zion NP is also excellent at night.

False Kiva in Canyonlands NP is a good spot, but it is about a 2 km hike in.

Goblin Valley State Park is a fun spot to photograph for a night. 

 In SE area of Utah is a place called the Valley of the Gods, a little visited area that has excellent buttes and mesas to film at night. Just south of the Valley of the Gods is Monument Valley, a classic spot. You have to get permission from the Navajo Indians to go out at night there.

Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument has really good stuff to photograph at night but it is really spread out. There is lots of driving involved there. Good spots: Sunset Arch, Chimney Rock, The Devils Garden, Metate Arch, The Toadstools, Dance Hall Rock, etc. The Wave is good if you can get a permit.

Northern Arizona: 

 North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Try Imperial Point and Bright Angel Point and Cape Royal. They face in the right direction to see the Milky Way. Monument Valley is excellent.

Northwest New Mexico: 

I love the New Mexico Badlands. The chance you will see someone else there at night is pretty close to zero. You may have to hike up to about 3 km or 2 miles or so in one direction at most, usually less. There are no trails so you need a GPS device to avoid getting lost, or maybe just less lost. I just use an app on my phone. The Bisti Badlands, about 30 miles or 50 km or so south of Farmington are great. There are many photo ops in a small place. Also good are the Valley of Dreams (with a hoodoo called the Alien Throne), the Valley of Dreams East, an area with a hoodoo called the King of Wings, and a nearby area called Ah-shi-sie-pah. All of these areas are in the same general vicinity, within a 1 hour drive. In the Badlands, once you get into the good ares there are numerous good photo ops. I get the GPS coordinates of the specific spots I want to visit ahead of time. Here are some links:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zJCKjjljTPpw.kTu66ZH6E1zQ&hl=en_US

http://www.thewave.info/AhShiSlePah/index.html

http://www.thewave.info/BistiBadlandsCode/Map.html

Eastern California:

 In Eastern California there is a long valley that extends from North to South with the Sierra Nevada range to the West and the White Mountains to the East. There are a lot of great places to do night photography there.

 Near the Northern End of this area is Lake Mono, a very "otherworldly" place with lots of large spires called Tuffas rising up from the lake bed. 

Going south you get to the area of Bishop, Ca. where you can go to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, a great place at night.

Still going south you get to Lone Pine, Ca., and the Alabama Hills, with a number of iconic spots, like Mobius Arch and Cyclops Arch. Lots of movies were shot here.

Still going south you come to Ridgecrest, Ca, and the nearby Trona Pinnacles. This is another place with an unusual otherworldly landscape. A number of movies were shot here also.

Still going south you get to Joshua Tree NP. There is some light pollution there but I have come away with decent photos.

Still going south you come to Borrego Springs, Ca. Outside the town there are 140+ life sized metal statues or works of art scattered through the desert, like dinosaurs, mammoths, dragons, and many other ancient and current animals. These are fun to photograph at night with the MW in the background. You can create an interesting atmosphere. Check this link for sn ides of what you might see:

https://www.google.com/search?q=borrego+springs+statues+night&client=safari&rls=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2g4mm5oHKAhVEzGMKHfOdAaQQ_AUIBygB&biw=1398&bih=1285

Also, just east of the Alabama Hills is Death Valley NP with very dark skies.

Cheers, Wayne Pinkston,  2015

In Memoriam by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook IN MEMORIAM:, THE SENTINEL: The Sentinel in Bryce Canyon National Park fell on Nov. 25. It is seen here as the lighted spire just to the right of center. This was taken several years ago in an effort to accentuate the Sentinel. The spire was along the Navajo Trail which can be seen in the lower center of the image. The Sentinel was one of the named landmarks in the park. Farewell!