The Three Gossips By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook 

Messages from the Past by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Messages from the Past: It seems like a basic human urge to communicate our thoughts to the world. Are our ideas likely to be as long lasting as these carved in rock, or will all of our digital wonderings and our paper renderings fade away over the millennia like dust in the wind? There is something to say for permanence. If only we knew what they were saying... ___________________________________________ Full disclosure: This is a composite image. It was cloudy the night I was there so I did a panorama of the foreground and added the sky in later. Note, the Milky Way and sky are aligned in there proper position so this is not a make-believe scene, but reflects what you would see if the sky was not cloudy. ___________________________________________

The Organ by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This butte is called The Organ, located on the main road in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. This is a panorama of about 12 vertical images (some were cropped off the sides), taken with a Nikon 810A and Nikon 14-24 mm lens at 20 mm, f 2.8,20 sec., and ISO 12,800. Processed in PS and LR. This was taken from the path to "Park Avenue", a nearby area. The main challenge here was to get all the shots without car lights. Arches has become a very popular location for star gazing and night photography, and there is still a lot of traffic on the roads until midnight or so. The milky way was centered over The Organ shortly after twilight, and to get this composition you needed to shoot early. It took about 5 minutes to shoot the whole series, and 5 minutes without car lights was hard to come by. Due to the location near the road, car headlights can light up the formation from pretty far away. This was shot multiple times until I could get a series of photos with only a few interruptions. Anyway it worked out well. After midnight things get quieter in Arches, and most of the stargazers go home, but it's still a busy place for photographers. The butte is dimly lit with what I call "LLL", or Low Level Lighting. It is done with LED light panels (on tripods, and with warming filters) turned down very low to match starlight, and then left on the whole time. People passing by would not be able to see any light on the structure. 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 Alien Throne with Comet 252P/Linear by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: No Aliens, just the Alien Throne. The unique Hoodoo is in the New Mexico Badlands, north of Chaco Canyon. I have been fascinated by the appearance since I first saw it's photo, and finally got to photograph it at night. The atmosphere is surreal. I love the melted wax appearance of the rocks in the region. 14-24 mm lens at 24 mm, 20 sec., f/2.8, ISO 6400. The small blue-green fuzzy object just above the right side of the large hoodoo is the comet 252P/LINEAR. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Questions and Answers:

 Handheld Torch/Flashlight for Persons within the night photos

People have asked me a number of questions about equipment, issues, and technique in Nightscape or Landscape Astrophotography. Since many of these questions are recurring, I am going to post the questions and answers here. I’ll answer your questions to the best of my ability!

Q:   I had a question that you lightly pinged off of in one of your descriptions. A couple of your pics have a humanoid subject holding a torch aimed at the sky. You mention in one description how you had wished you had focused the light a little better. I tried using a headlamp one morning and could not see the beam at all in the sky. All you could see was an overblown white patch on the humanoid's face. How exactly do you get the beam of the torch shining at the sky to show up in the image? I was figuring we could exaggerate it with some powder in the sky, but that seemed a little silly? Or is it just a higher power torch than what my headlamp is capable of? Thanks for your time, and again, great captures.

A: Thanks for looking and writing. You have to use the right kind of light to make it work at night. To see a person holding a light or torch, it works best if you have a LED flashlight/torch, and if it is a focusing light. The last part is important. You need to get a focusing flashlight/torch. The one I used in the photo you mentioned was a focusing COAST brand light. To made it even more focused you can make a "snoot" or a black tube or cylinder to go around the end of the light. This prevents or minimizes side scatter. You can make it out of black rubbery material, black construction paper, etc. But since them I have learned of an even better focusing light, the Duracell Durabeam 1000 Ultra High Beam light. It focuses to an amazingly tight beam and really shows up well in photos. There is also a "500" lumen version. You can get it at Amazon for around $35 USD, and I have been told it is available at Costco for around $22 or so. 

I bought a focusing Coast Brand headlamp, but I would like to get one more powerful, so I do not have a really good recommendation for a headlamp to be in the photos.

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

Park Avenue by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Park Avenue, Wall to Wall: Another location I’ve been wanting to capture is “Park Ave.” in Arches National Park. I’ve wanted to see if I could make an interesting composition in this location. Park Ave. is a trail between large buttes and spires on each side. To include the Milky Way I had to get to the north end of the trail and look south. This is a panorama of approximately 240 degrees, trying to capture the towering walls on each side. I still didn’t capture the feeling of the immense walls on each side, but you can get an idea of the landscape. This is a panorama. The sky was captured at 14 mm, f/2.8, 29 sec., and ISO 4,000. The foreground was captured at 14 mm, f/2.0, 120 sec., and ISO 6400. Images combined in PS. Thanks for looking! Wayne

A Candle Wax Landscape by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! This is a panorama from the Bisti Badlands in the NW part of New Mexico, USA. The landscape resembles melted wax in many areas, an is the result of erosion of an ancient sea bed over millions of years. It is "otherworldly" and a unique experience at night. This is a panorama of multiple vertical images shot at 18 mm, f 3.2, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. There is Low Level Lighting, or LLL, to gently illuminate the foreground. This is very dim constant light that attempts to match starlight, so dim you can hardly see it. In this case I have used LED light panels with warming filters turned down very low. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Mono Lake by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Blend Sky: 16 images, 20 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 14 mm Foreground: 5 minutes, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 14 mm Mono Lake, California. These are tufas arising out of Mono Lake. They are formed from mineral deposits from springs beneath the lake bed over centuries and are exposed when the water level falls. The water level varies greatly. The paths I recorded 2 years ago during the drought are mostly underwater now. The largest concentration of tufas is along the south shore. When including the Milky Way you are usually facing south, so this makes it more difficult to photograph the tufas, lake, and MW at the same time. There are a few small “peninsulas” that stick out into the lake making it possible (but tricky) to shoot across the water facing S and include both tufas and the MW. There is a stack for the sky and a long exposure for the foreground (5minutes), blended in PS. Cheers, Wayne Pinkston

The Castle Gate by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Castle Gate: There is Low Level Lighting (LLL) from 2 sources. There is a small Goal Zero Micro Lantern just behind the tunnel turned down low, and a Ceneroid LED light Panel on a light stand behind me and to the left, also turned down low. The Cineroid has a variable color temperature and is set to about 4000-4200K. The rock here is very red-orange, and if you use a light temperature much lower (warmer) that this then the rock turns very unnaturally red. Stacked image, 19 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec., ISO 10,000.

Hello Wayne- I came across your Flickr page and subsequently your web site. Your photos are absolutely stunning! I myself am planning a trip to Joshua Tree National Park to photograph the Milky Way on 9-13. I don't know if this is a faux pas, but where (at least in the vicinity) did you shoot your JT pano from? Studying Google Maps, it looks like a good area with large rock formations and yucca trees would be somewhere in between Jumbo Rocks and possibly Key's View on Park Blvd.?

Hi Anonymous. The panorama was shot out the “back” of the Hidden Valley area. If you consider the main road entry as the “front” of Hidden Valley, then go as far into the deepest part of the parking lot as possible. I parked there and hiked a short distance directly out the back going away from the main road. I had planned to be somewhere else (Trona Pinnacles) that night but relocated to Joshua Tree when the weather forecast said the skies would be clear there. I did not have a lot of time to scout it out, but this area seemed to have all the characteristics of Joshua Tree, and also was “open” allowing you to move around and get the angle of the Milky Way you wanted. It was spring, so the Milky Way will be at a different angle now. Another good spot to check out is Arch Rock. Good luck! Cheers, Wayne