Jeffrey pine and the Milky Way, Yosemite NP, CA

Jeffrey pine and the Milky Way, Yosemite NP, CA

We conducted two more workshops last week, our second editions this summer of the Inside Bodie and Starry Skies Adventure workshops. We had a lot of fun once again, with great conditions and really nice people.

I made this photo on the first night of our Starry Skies workshop near Olmsted Point in Yosemite. Several members of our group and I framed views of this photogenic Jeffrey pine with the Milky Way and Half Dome in the distance. We made some exposures with just starlight, then tried to light the tree with a flashlight. Later we did some more complex lighting, but I ended up liking this simple version with just one flashlight aimed at the tree. We used a homemade snoot on the flashlight to narrow the beam and prevent too much light from spilling onto the rocks below the tree.

As I discussed in a recent post, with really wide lenses you can use slightly longer exposures without the stars becoming streaks. Here the focal length was 16mm, and my settings were 30 seconds at f/4, 6400 ISO. Although I frequently make separate exposures for the sky and light-painting in situations like this (and then later blend those exposures together), this wasn’t one of those times – it was just one frame, with the lighting added during the 30-second exposure.

I’ll post more images from our workshops soon, but look for a new photo critique tomorrow!

— Michael Frye

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.