by Michael Frye | Sep 11, 2016 | Night Photography
DeChambeau Hotel and I.O.O.F. Hall at night, Bodie State Historic Park, CA, USA
On the last night of our recent Starry Skies Adventure workshop we went to Bodie, which is always a great place for night photography. As the Milky Way moved into the southwest that evening it lined up well with these two buildings along Main Street, the DeChambeau Hotel and I.O.O.F. (Independent Order of Odd Fellows) Hall. I had never photographed this view of Bodie before so decided to try it, and was joined by several other people in the workshop.
I knew the lighting would be complicated, but that’s part of the fun of photographing Bodie at night. You can do relatively simple light-painting there, or, if you’re up for a challenge, try something complex. Here we wanted make it look as if the buildings were lit from the inside (even though the interiors were locked and inaccessible to us). That’s not really hard to do – just shine flashlights through the windows. The hard part was figuring out how to keep yourself out of the frame while doing so. The solution was to do each part of the lighting in a separate frame, and then mask off the unwanted areas of that frame (like a person holding a flashlight) in Photoshop.
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by Michael Frye | Sep 7, 2016 | Night Photography
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.
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by Michael Frye | Aug 28, 2016 | Night Photography
Star trails over the Methodist Church, Bodie State Historic Park, CA, USA
We’ve been able to take workshop groups into Bodie at night several times in recent years, which is always a lot of fun. But I’d never captured star trails there, mainly because star trails take a long time, and I’d wanted to spend my limited time there doing other things with the class. But during our last night session there a couple of the participants and I decided to try photographing what’s become a Bodie classic – star trails over the Methodist Church. The church works perfectly for this because you can line up the steeple with the North Star and create concentric circles overhead.
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by Michael Frye | Aug 16, 2016 | Night Photography
Moon setting over an alpine lake, Yosemite, 1:00 a.m. Friday morning
After our trip to the Alabama Hills Claudia and I drove back up to Yosemite, and on Thursday night we hiked up to an alpine lake to view the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. Knowing that the moon wouldn’t set until nearly 1:00 a.m., we didn’t start hiking until well after dark, and arrived at the lake around 12:30 a.m.
The moon setting over the lake was a beautiful sight. As the moon sank lower it turned orange, just like the setting sun. It also became dimmer, so the stars came out. The extreme contrast made photographing this scene difficult, but when the moon reached a point right above the horizon the contrast dropped just enough, and I was able to capture the image above. In many ways this looks just like a sunset photograph – except for the sky full of stars.
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by Michael Frye | Aug 14, 2016 | Night Photography
Arch, meteor, and the Milky Way, Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, California. 2:13 a.m. Thursday, August 11th.
After the workshops Claudia and I decided to head down to the Alabama Hills. I’ve been wanting to do some night photography there, and the Perseid meteor shower was nearing its peak. This is typically one of the best meteor showers of the year, but this year was supposed to be exceptionally good, with up to 200 meteors per hour during the peak time early Friday morning.
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by Michael Frye | Jul 10, 2016 | Night Photography
Milky Way over the Tuolumne River, Yosemite; 15 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 6400
On Wednesday afternoon Claudia and I headed up to the beautiful, cool Yosemite high country. We photographed a flower-filled meadow, followed by a picnic dinner at Olmsted Point. Then after sunset we hiked out along the Tuolumne River.
Skies have been clear lately – not ideal for daytime landscapes, but perfect for photographing the night sky. And with a new moon it was the right time to see dark skies with lots of stars. I had used PhotoPills to figure out when the Milky Way would line up above some cascades along the Tuolumne River, which seemed like an interesting combination. But even if that didn’t work, Claudia and I just wanted to get out and enjoy a starry night in the high country.
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