Last night I took a little adventure out to the middle of absolutely nowhere, someplace in northern Nevada, in search of the bizarre and obscure, "Fly Geyser". I drove around and scouted the place out in the dark, in hopes of making it there for a sunrise shoot. I knew that even finding it was a long shot. Getting to it was an even longer shot, but it has been on my list for ages. So. After getting the lay of the land, I managed to find a tiny little dirt road. I drove as far off the main road as possible, and found an inconspicuous place to sleep in the back of my truck out in the desert. We had one of the best night skies I have seen in ages. The Milky Way was streaking across the sky, while a few wispy clouds blew by.
There was absolutely nothing to put in the foreground, but I figured I would try shooting a few long exposures of the night sky. I had nothing else to do. I had no TV, and I couldn't even play with my new iPhone. No signal out there.
This was shot with my fisheye. I wanted to get as much of the sky in frame as possible.
While I decide which Fly Geyser shot to work on first, I thought I would throw this one up, since it is pretty much straight out of the camera and didn't require any real photoshop work.
1 minute exposure
F 2.8
1600 ISO
Tags: 8-11 0507 www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer nevada NV night sky milky way fisheye
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I got another new toy yesterday, so last night I had to go out and play. I've been really getting into trying to master these star shots for the past few months and have found that 9-10 days before full moon is the perfect time for these starlight photos. There is just enough moon to throw some light in the foreground without washing out all the stars. So... Last night was my time. 30% moon, setting at 11:30... Perfect!
So… I bought another bright, prime lens for my collection. It's a Sigma 20mm f1.8. Just arrived yesterday. So far, I'm REALLY impressed. I always used to consider Sigma to be cheap, crappy lenses and vowed never to buy one again about 10 years ago. They seem to have seriously stepped up their quality. I guess they have to keep up with the quality of these ever improving digital cameras. So far I'm pleasantly surprised by the sharpness of this thing. This should be a great lens for star photos. Seems like the wider the better for shooting stars. There are not many stars down by the horizon. The darkest sky is usually right over your head, so a 20mm should be wide enough to see way up into the sky.
This was shot with the f-stop wide open at f1.8. 30 second exposure. ISO 640. Lit by the setting moon, with a tiny bit of lightpainting from a flashlight.
The sharpness of that lens is amazingly good for shooting with the F wide open. A bit of softness and chromatic aberration at the corners. And quite a bit of vignetting, which totally goes away once you get it up to f2.8. The center of the image looks surprisingly sharp. (especially for a SIgma)
I want to wish everyone the happiest of New Years!
Tags: 12-11 9640 www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer Arizona AZ
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I've been wanting to try this for ages. This week was the perfect time. The moon is rising in the early evening, so by late night, it is in just the perfect spot. As much as I didn't feel like heading back out at midnight after getting all comfy watching TV and working on my computer, that's what I did.
I was digging through my lens graveyard (drawer full of lenses that I never use) and discovered that I actually own a 28mm f1.8 prime lens. I haven't used it in so long, that I forgot I had it. I remembered that there was some kind of problem with it, so I stopped using it and never had it fixed. So, I put it on my camera to see if it worked. Turns out that the problem was the f-stop is not working. It is stuck open at f1.8. Well… That is exactly what I needed for this shot, so I used it.
So… This is the spectacular, Double Arch, in Arches National Park a little after midnight, lit almost entirely by moonlight. I popped my flash a few times to slightly fill in the shadows under the arch. I figured it would be difficult to compose a shot in the dark, so I went there the day before with my prime 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm lenses and found a good spot to shoot from with each lens, so last night I just went to my predetermined spot and shot this.
Tags: 9-11 1951 www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer Utah UT
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I've been wanting to try this for ages, but never seem to have the right conditions. I've been wanting to do a few experimental test shots, to get an idea of camera settings and exposure.
I just need a campsite that is.
#1… Quiet and isolated, so I can leave my camera out all night without it disappearing.
#2… A nice clean view of the northern sky.
#3… Very little light pollution. (this ruled out the three months I spent in California)
#4… No moon.
Finally got all four of those, and I've been playing with this every night this week.
This is actually a bunch of 10 minute exposures, all blended manually in Photoshop.
Tags: 9-11 3236 www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer colorado CO durango star trails bravo
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Here's one from a couple months ago. Grand Canyon under the light of the moon.
Tags: 10-11 0162 www.mikejonesphoto.com Smith-Southwestern Mike Jones photo landscape scenic nature professional photographer Arizona AZ ns
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