Words, Words and More Words: Announcing the Night Photography Glossary

Jargon. Lingo. Parlance. Vernacular. At the bottom line, they’re all just words. But words are important. Words help us understand each other, they help us understand concepts, they help us learn new ideas. And the words that have nuanced definitions for a particular field are critical to understanding that field well.

Auto mechanics have their own vocabulary. For example, to them “dipstick” means something entirely different. Software engineers have their own terminology. For example, “incremental development.” Sailors have theirs. “Argh!”

And night photographers? Heck yeah, we have our own language too. Heaven help the stranger who walks into a night shoot and tries to make sense of, “Hey, I set the LENR when using my intervalometer, and now I have gaps in my star-stacked Silky Way, not to mention moire. And don’t even get me started on my lighting ratio and ambient exposure. Hot pixels! Bortle!!!”

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Yeah, we have a lot of words.

At National Parks at Night, as photography instructors we spend a fair amount of time talking about those words and terms—words and terms from A to Z, such as “azimuth” and “zodiacal light.”

Now we’ve put those words together into a glossary. Over 250 terms about night photography, along with over 80 images to illustrate. The vocabulary of this fun and wonderful thing we do.

We’re making The Night Photography Glossary available to all, to read over your morning coffee. You can do so two ways:

1. We have added a Night Photography Glossary page to this website.

2. We have published a Night Photography Glossary e-book, with a fun, illustrative layout. For this we are charging—well, whatever you’d like to pay us. You may enter $0 and download for free, or you may send us some funds in exchange for our educational offering. Whatever it feels worth to you, is fine with us.

Either way, these are living documents. We will make updates to the Night Photography Glossary over time, adding terms and updating definitions. The webpage will always be kept current, and occasional updated versions of the e-book will be available as well (if you download, you’ll receive an email whenever we post a new version).

OK, enough words from us—in this announcement, at least. Move on over to all the words in our glossary. Soon you’ll be able to tell all your friends about how you bulb-ramped that time-lapse and then used your colorimeter to ensure accurate K and dark-frame-subtracted the hot pixels. Bortle!

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Diggin' Gear: Announcing a Brand New Blog to Help Solve Your Night Photography Problems

Photographers love gear, and many photographers love talking gear. The reason isn’t a mystery. What’s in our bag are the tools we use to pursue our passion, and they are an integral component of our ability to create the work we envision.

Of course, not all gear is “necessary.” If you have a camera, a lens and a medium, then you can make photographs. And if you can make photographs, then creativity is really the only additional speed bump on the road to photographs that are fulfilling to craft.

Still, many other pieces of gear ease the process in different ways, and that’s advantageous. It’s not because we’re lazy and need the process to be faster—it’s because easing some of the challenging aspects of photography frees up time and energy that can be better used on expanding that creativity.

In short, good gear solves problems.

Between the five of us here at National Parks at Night, we’ve found a lot of gear to solve a lot of night photography problems. Every now and then we write a blog post when something disruptive comes along, such as the Nikon Z 6, or the Luxli Viola, or the Phottix Aion. But we haven’t had a space for sharing the nearly endless stream of other products we experience and adopt into our kits and workflows.

Until now!

Today we are announcing the National Parks at Night Gear Blog.

This blog will feature short posts about tools that solve night photography problems. We’ll post not on a predetermined schedule as we do with our main blog (where you are reading this), but rather whenever some cool product piques our interest. That might be once per month, or could be several times in a week.

We’re starting today, with reviews on five pieces of gear, a few of which we’ve loved for a while and a few of which we’ve discovered recently:

1. the Coast HP7R flashlight

2. the Focus on Stars focusing tool

3. the Gitzo GIGT2545T Traveler Series 2 tripod

4. the Ledlenser P6R Work flashlight

5. the PhotoPills app

You can find them all on our:

Over the next few months we’ll give you tastes of other equipment we believe in: bags, lights, software, lenses and whatever. We’ll let you know on our social media channels every time we post something new. Then once we’ve shown you enough of what this will all be about, we’ll give you a way to opt in to subscribe to these posts too.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy the beginning of this practically endless exploration of the gear we love to work with.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Seize the Night, Online! — Announcing the Second Annual Night Photo Summit

We are delighted to announce the second annual Night Photo Summit!

Last winter, we hosted and produced the first Night Photo Summit, a 3-day virtual conference to celebrate everything we love about night photography. It was intense. It was educational. It was fun!

We created the summit as a way to share our passion with you, the community of like-minded photographers who love the night.

Over 350 people joined together for a long weekend of inspiration and camaraderie, and it was such a blast that we knew, even before it was over, that we would do it again in 2022.

Join us from February 4-6, 2022, to experience 3 days of dynamic presentations from 30-plus world class photographers, authors, artists, rangers, an astronomer, and even a meteorologist.

Sessions and Speakers

There are sessions about creativity, dark skies and weather, and of course night photo techniques––image capture, lighting, time-lapse, post-processing and more.

There are classes for all levels, including a Night Photography Fundamentals track, as well as intermediate and advanced level courses, all totaling for over 45 hours of learning and virtual adventure. And we are thrilled to have our friend and world-renowned nature and cultural photographer Art Wolfe share his World at Night project turned book.

There will be panel discussions (including “Women in Night Photography—Challenges and Achievements Under the Stars”), a group image review with the National Parks at Night instructors, and opportunities to connect with the wider community of creative professionals who share a love of night photography.

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Our incredible lineup of speakers and talks includes:

• Adam Woodworth: “Milky Way Crash Course”

• Amir Shahcheraghian: “10 Years of Night Sky Photography in the Desert National Parks of Iran”

• Art Wolfe: “Art Wolfe Presents: Night on Earth”

• Autumn Schrock: “Process to Print: Making Your Night Photos Shine on the Wall”

• Chris Nicholson: “Oceans, Lakes, Rivers and Ponds: Working with Water at Night”

• Colleen Miniuk: “Finding Your Creative Voice”

• Erik Kuna: “Planning a Milky Way Adventure with PhotoPills”

• Forest Chaput de Saintonge: “Deep-Sky Astrophotography with a Telephoto Lens”

• Gabriel Biderman: “Out of this World: Beyond the Basics of Star Trail Photography”

• Gunther Wegner: “Day to Night Transitions: The Holy Grail of Time-lapse Photography”

• Hannu Huhtamo: “Drawing with Light”

• Imma Barrera: “Under the Night Sky as a National Park Artist in Residence”

• Jess Santos: “Building Your Instagram Presence”

• Kah-Wai Lin: “Photographing Auroras and Winter Landscapes”

• Ken Lee: “How to Use Light Painting Angles to Create Detail, Texture and Drama”

• Kevin Adams: “Fantastical Fireflies”

• Lance Keimig: “8 Lessons from Early Night Photographers That Will Make You Better Tonight”

• Matt Hill: “How to Capture and Edit Multirow Night Panoramas”

• Michael DeYoung: “Using the Best Weather Forecasts to Find Clear Skies and Perfect Clouds, Day or Night”

• Michael Frye: “Expressive Night Photography”

• Mike Mezeul II: “Extreme Nature in the Night”

• Nicole Mortillaro: “What to Look Forward to in the Night Skies of 2022”

• Ranger Rader Lane: “Night Skies in our National Parks”

• Rafael Pons: “How to Plan Your Night Sky Photos (Milky Way, Star Trails and Meteor Showers)”

• Royce Bair: “Low-Level Lighting: How to Create Stunning Nightscapes”

• Susan Magnano: “Luminescent Portraits: A Live Demo with Light Writing”

• Tim Cooper: “Creating Realistic Landscape/Milky Way Blends”

• … and more to be announced!

Sponsors & Giveaways

Every attendee will be automatically entered into drawings for a large number of giveaways from our generous sponsors, as well as amazing session-specific giveaways from speakers. Prizes include a Gitzo tripod, Vallerett photography gloves, a KelbyOne membership, a book and print from Art Wolfe, light painting tools, an Irix lens, a Move-Shoot-Move star tracker and more.

The Night Photo Summit is sponsored by Chimani, Coast Portland, Irix, Ledlenser, Manfrotto/Gitzo, Move-Shoot-Move, the NightScaper Conference, PhotoPills and Vallerret, with additional sponsors to be named soon.

How to Join Us

If you’re into night photography, or if you want to get into it, this is an event you absolutely do not want to miss.

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Tickets are $399, and include:

• 3 days, more than 25 instructors, over 45 hours of inspiration, instruction and fun

• 1 year of access to re-watch any of the courses

• a live image review session

• three panel discussions

• exclusive glow-in-the-dark summit T-shirt (mailed to attendees with U.S. addresses, and we may be able to help those from other countries too!)

• personal access to product experts from manufacturers and developers sponsoring the event

• giveaways throughout the duration of the summit

• an unprecedented opportunity to connect with like-minded photographers passionate about the night

Moreover, if you purchase your ticket before noon EST on January 14, you’ll get your shirt and a swag bag (USA only) before the summit!

Registration is available now, so sign up today and mark your calendars to join National Parks at Night for the world’s second online Night Photo Summit!

JOIN US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

As if that isn’t all enough, we’ll be releasing plenty more information over the next few weeks. To stay tuned in to it all, we invite you to follow the summit social media accounts on:

• Instagram: @nightphotosummit

• Facebook: @nightphotosummit

• Twitter: @nightsummit

We are very much looking forward to seeing you online next month. In the meantime, feel free to ask us any questions via the social media accounts above, in the comments below, or through the Night Photo Summit webpage.

Seize the night … online!

Lance Keimig is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He has been photographing at night for 30 years, and is the author of Night Photography and Light Painting: Finding Your Way in the Dark (Focal Press, 2015). Learn more about his images and workshops at www.thenightskye.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

10 Pictures, 10 Tales: Our Favorite Night Photos of 2021

2021 was a challenging year for all. But the overall themes that prevailed were hope and celebration, as many of us could finally rejoin the great outdoors with friends and family. At National Parks at Night, we were so thrilled to see our community in-person and to share sacred spaces under the stars.

Now, at the end of 2021, as in the past we look back on our year’s worth of images and note the ones that are most precious to us. Choosing your favorite photos can be a daunting project. What makes a 5-star image? Is it the technical work that went into creating it? Or the reminder of a very special night? Which photographs still continue to shine and what new gems have been uncovered?

As you read about each National Parks at Night instructor’s favorite two photographs of the year, the underlining theme is that each had the power to transport us back to that precise moment in time. The feelings that come rushing back can be a combination of everything that aligned to create the image. It transports us back and hopefully takes you on a similar journey.

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Chris Nicholson

Stars Over Zumwalt Meadows, Kings Canyon National Park

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Nikon D5 with a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. Two blended exposures shot at 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 400 (foreground) and 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 8000 (sky).

When I was writing my book Photographing National Parks a few years back, I spent a lot of time in coffee shops in Queens, New York, where I lived at the time—as well as in coffee shops in my hometown in Connecticut and in other places I traveled—researching and writing about various places, including some I’d never been to. I recall writing about fantastical-sounding spots such as Cinder Cone in Lassen Volcanic National Park, and Grand View Point in Canyonlands, and Artist Point in North Cascades, and hoping that someday I’d get to visit them.

In the following years I was fortunate that my book carried me to these places and more. On multiple occasions I’ve stood gazing at grand vistas, thinking back to my days leaning over my laptop in some random Starbucks learning and writing about these places, and marveling at the journey that brought me to be there in person.

Another such place was Zumwalt Meadow in Kings Canyon National Park, which I wrote about sometime around 2013 and finally was able to visit in 2021. From my book: “Zumwalt Meadow is easy to hike to and around, and is pleasant to photograph, as well. The meadow sits on the valley floor, with lush greenery providing a softer aesthetic than found in most other areas of the park. The Kings River flows through the grasses, framed by the distinctive granite walls of Grand Sentinel and North Dome.”

Zumwalt sits near the end of the furthest mile of paved road in Kings Canyon. Lance and I ventured out there, scrambled about 30 feet up some talus, set up our tripods for a dusk foreground exposure, then waited under a peaceful, spectacular night sky for a starry background exposure.

For a long time I sat on a boulder, just watching this beautiful space on Earth roll into darkness, once again remembering where I’d been and feeling grateful for where I’d come.

Tuolumne River and Meadows, Yosemite National Park

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Nikon D5 with an Irix 11mm f/4 lens. Two blended exposures shot at 4 minutes, f/4, ISO 2000 (foreground) and 25 seconds, f/4, ISO 8000 (sky).

My next favorite photo from 2021 is also a blue hour blend, which isn’t much of a coincidence because it’s a technique I deliberately tried to employ more during the year.

This time I was in Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. It’s a beautiful location in the High Sierra region of the park—an area that for many visitors is practically ignored in favor of the oft-visited valley.

At 8,600 feet, Tuolumne is one of the highest-elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada. The Tuolumne River quietly bisects the glacier-carved meadow, meandering among erratics and past scattered lodgepole and Jeffrey pines, supporting a teeming riparian ecosystem that’s practically an oasis in the beautiful yet rugged and vast sub-alpine landscape.

I was again with Lance, and we hiked into the meadow to a beautiful view of the Tuolumne River flowing toward the distant mountains. The moon was new, so I knew the landscape would be completely dark once twilight was over. Phrased another way, it was a perfect situation for a blue hour blend.

I set up my tripod and used the ultrawide Irix 11mm f/4 lens to fill the foreground with the river. I made a few exposures during dusk, then left the setup while heading off to shoot with a second camera for awhile. I came back once the stars were shining, and made several exposures over the course of an hour or so, capturing the Milky Way in different spots as it drifted along the horizon. I later composited two of the frames in Photoshop to create the final image.

Gabriel Biderman

Officer’s Row, Sandy Hook

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Nikon Z 6 with a Nikon Z 24-70mm f/4 lens at 24mm. 30 seconds, f/11, ISO 1600.

My new year’s resolution for 2021 was a simple one: to get out more at night and photograph! I live in Brooklyn, New York, and spent most of 2020 indoors; I didn’t travel farther than my Vepsa could take me.

So in early January my wife and I decided to spend a weekend with a good friend of ours in New Jersey, right outside Sandy Hook. Part of Gateway National Recreation Area, Sandy Hook is a very popular spot in the warmer months, but in the winter when the temperature is below 20 F, not so much.

For the two nights I poked around with my camera, I was bundled up like an Arctic explorer. Everyone thought I was crazy for going out, but I would not be daunted. This was the first national park I had stepped into in over a year, and I was energized!

Officer’s Row is one of the most scenic spots at Sandy Hook, especially for the brilliant sunsets that light up the sky. I tried a variety of focal lengths, cropping in tight to one, three or five houses. It was nice, but almost too simple. I continued to move back to include more buildings and then I realized that the trees at the other end of the field stood in a row similar to the homes. By adding the trees, it created the perfect foreground to give a better sense of place. Officer’s Row is not just the homes they lived in, but the field where military folk played with their families.

It was a cold and lonely experience, but one that jump-started my 2021 relationship with national parks at night.

Reacquainted with the Night, Joshua Tree National Park

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Sony a7S III with a Sony FE 12-24mm f/2.8 lens at 18mm. 13 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400.

I was thrilled to have my first road trip of the year be to a familiar and always inspirational place, Joshua Tree National Park. I was also excited to be sharing the experience with my good friend and co-teacher, Matt Hill. We both packed our kitchen sinks for what would end up being a 3-week road trip. Not only did I bring trackers, tripods and time-lapse devices, but I also borrowed every Sony A7 and A9 camera and most of their wide and fast glass.

Matt and I had 3 days to scout and enjoy the night skies as we prepared for an upcoming workshop. But with so much gear, I got stuck in “testing” mode and created very few images for myself.

After the workshop we stayed an extra night to team with Chris and Tim to record our OPTIC Imaging Conference presentation for B&H Photo. That was a long, focused night that required the four of us to play multiple roles from creative to producer and grip!

During a break in the filming Matt went to lay on one of Joshua Tree’s many boulders. He was exhausted and needed to re-energize by taking a few moments to be one with the stars.

I immediately took one of our Luxli Fiddle LED panels and boomed it up and over him. I love the spotlight effect that made it seem like Matt was bathing in the moonlight. For the camera, I chose a low angle to create a new horizon line that makes it seem like Matt is floating on a wave of rocks.

This could be one of my favorite night portraits I have ever made, because to me Matt is experiencing something I have done and that we all need to remember: Take a break under the stars and get reacquainted with the night.

Lance Keimig

Julie at Bass Harbor

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Nikon D780 with a Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 lens at 29mm. Six composited frames exposed at a range of 2 to 30 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 100.

This image was made more or less as a grab shot as the last twilight was fading at Bass Harbor, Maine, during our PhotoPills workshop in Acadia National Park.

We had arrived just as the light was fading, and by the time the group dispersed and got to work, it was too late to get it all in one exposure. Not to be deterred, I did a six-frame bracket at 1-stop intervals. I was struck by the scene, and even in the fading twilight the light was gorgeous. Our workshop participant Julie had set up on the pier, and at first I was bummed that she was in my frame, but in the end I think that she adds to the image.

I’m attracted to the cool blue colors punctuated with one sodium vapor streetlight and a few warm lights in the houses, plus the stillness and the simple architectural shape of the shack on the pier. Julie adds another element, and marks the context for my memory.

To me, it’s a great example of how a photograph has the power to transport me to a different place and time. As I sit here typing on a cold December evening in Vermont, I’m taken back to coastal Maine in the height of summer, and all of the places spent over the course of a week with a fine group of people making images. It’s personal, and I like that. The viewer will make whatever they want or nothing at all of the image, but for me it is a place-keeper for a boatload of memories.

Tanguy Key

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Nikon D750 with a Nikon 28mm PC f/3.5 lens. 15 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 6400.

After completing our Everglades National Park workshop in April, Chris and I took a couple of days to explore the Florida Keys. I am so out of my element in Florida. Culturally, geographically, meteorologically, Florida is just not in my wheelhouse. I admit, after a long New England winter it was nice to be wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt while those at home were still wearing down jackets, but still …

The drive from the Everglades into the Middle Keys took longer than we had anticipated, and longer than Google had promised, and the night-photo opps visible from the main drag were few and far between. I didn’t mind; I was just along for the ride and happy to experience this strange new environment.

This image was made at the foot of one of the causeways that connects the keys, where the setting comprised a vast expanse of sea and sky punctuated with sticks and stones and various synthetic detritus. The tropical colors and minimalist landscape reminded me of the French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, and I made several compositions that night in his honor that had a similar feel.

I’m smitten with this composition—the repeating shapes of the stones, the sticks, the horizon and the wires, and the graduated turquoise hues of water fading into sky all work together to make this one of my surprise greatest hits of 2021.

Matt Hill

White Pocket

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Nikon Z 6 with an Irix Cine 11mm T4.3 lens, lit with a Luxli Fiddle. Eleven frames shot at 20 seconds, T4.3, ISO 12800, stitched in PTGui and post-processed in Lightroom.

Until this year, one of my bucket list experiences was an overnight at White Pocket in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument of northern Arizona. Boy am I lucky to have scratched this one off the list!

This location is on BLM land, and you can camp there overnight without a permit. If planning a visit, always check ahead of time, as it’s a major commitment to drive out there (in deep, deep sand). You might also consider hiring a local guide, like we did. They provided camp gear and food, and we drove ourselves in a high-clearance vehicle.

All disclaimers aside, this area is precious, wild, remote and located in dark, dark skies. Being there seems like being on the surface of another planet. The various colors and textures of rock are mesmerizing, and a joy to light paint.

I had been imagining this pano for years. Ever since my first daytime-only visit I’d been wanting to photograph the Vortex and Castle Rock paired with a low Milky Way.

When the chance finally came, I was with Gabe and we interpreted this scene in different ways. But we both had our tripod legs on the precipice of the Vortex, which dips down much more precariously than this image suggests.

The final pano is a PTGui blend of 11 images made from an ultrawide 11mm Irix Cine lens, in vertical orientation. As usual, I aggressively overlapped the images for a seamless stitch. I shot at ISO 12,800 to balance out the native T4.3 maximum aperture. And each 20-second exposure was halfway between Accurate and Default NPF exposure durations for crispy star points.

Lighting the monumental landform was tricky. I used a Luxli Fiddle to bounce light off the stone wall behind us—literally the only option as my angle of view exceeded 200 degrees.

This now hangs on my wall as a 72-inch Xposer print.

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park

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Nikon Z 6II with a Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S lens at 34mm, lit with two Coast HP7R flashlights. 60 seconds, f/6.3, ISO 100.

During our New York City workshop with Gabe, it felt great to get back to my roots. Gabe and I had met and fostered our friendship over night photography in NYC, so returning to the noise and a cacophony of light sources was quite satisfying.

Bethesda Fountain is an icon within the world-famous Central Park. This was not my first time shooting here, but it was certainly the best lighting I’ve ever had. And that was due to teamwork!

Gabe and I placed our flashlights on the fountain’s edge to add sparkle to the gilded statuary. The light also filled in the dark areas in the water and under the body of the fountain. We placed the first light slightly left of camera, the second perpendicular and to the right. The result is, for me, a strong example of well-defined portrait lighting.

Of particular challenge was defining the falling water. The camera did capture all the info I needed, but some post-processing magic in Lightroom was required to render this version. Applying a Select Subject mask allowed me to control the highlights and contrast in the water. I added a Select Sky mask to darken the sky, and increased contrast. Finally, I darkened the bright clouds low to the horizon with a brush mask and emphasized the paths of the water cascading down to the final raised pool.

What you don’t see was the most “New York Moment” of all: the half-naked man collecting change from the bottom of the fountain during this exposure. Ah, New York, how I love you.

Tim Cooper

Desert Light, Joshua Tree National Park

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Nikon Z 6II with a Nikon Z 12-24mm f/2.8 lens at 24mm. Multiple blended exposures of 30 seconds, f/8, ISO 1600 (foreground) and 15 minutes, f/8, ISO 100 (sky).

With its amazing array of rock formations, desert flora and pure night skies, Joshua Tree National Park is a night photographer's paradise. I was fortunate enough to be there for the near simultaneous events of our PhotoPills workshop and our video production for B&H’s OPTIC Imaging conference.

While scouting, Chris showed me this narrow defile near Skull Rock and I knew it was not only a great spot for our PhotoPills workshop but also a perfect spot for me to do a light painting demo for the conference. The shoot was, however, going to be a challenge.

When first entering the narrow gorge I saw the desert scrub plant wedged between the rounded rocks and knew I wanted to backlight the plant so it would anchor the foreground and highlight the texture in the rock formations.

The first problem was that there was no way one exposure would give me enough time to light paint the foreground and the background. The second problem was that I was so close to foreground rocks that even an aperture of f/16 would not provide perfect sharpness throughout the scene. So I decided to break up the scene into several exposures.

On the first exposure I focused on the foreground rocks and painted from behind to bring out the texture and to backlight the scrub plant. On the second exposure I refocused on the middle ground and walked through the scene while illuminating the walls of the gorge. The light on the far peak was supplied by passing cars.

After many practice runs and several failed attempts I was finally able to light the entire scene as I’d imagined it. For the final exposure I focused on the sky to create the trailing stars.

While the bulk of time creating this image occurred in the field, I also spent a significant amount of time post-processing. The same scene taken with different focus points results in small changes to the size of the subjects within the scene. This means that I had to resize each frame in Photoshop so that all of the rocks were the same size in the final image. Then each frame had to be blended together to create the illusion of continuous lighting. The easiest part was blending the star trails with the foreground.

While many night images can be made with a single exposure, sometimes it's easy to envision a shot that requires a lot more work. I’m glad I took on this particular challenge as it turned out to be one of my favorite images of 2021.

Star Trails, Valley View, Yosemite National Park

Nikon Z 6II with a Nikon Z 12-24mm f/2.8 lens at 14mm. Foreground: three focus-stacked blue-hour images shot at 15 seconds, f/5, ISO 100. Sky: three exposures shot at 5 minutes, f/3.5, ISO 500.

Of the millions of photographs made in Yosemite National Park, some of my favorites are from the Valley View pull-off. The ever-changing volume of the Merced River revealing, hiding and reshaping the river's edge directly below the parking area has been fodder for an abundance of magical photographs. I was determined to add to that collection, hoping for an image that captured this view with the stars of the night sky.

My chance finally came in October when Matt and I led a group of night photographers for a workshop in Yosemite Valley. During our initial scout I was disappointed to find that the river had become so low from California's ongoing drought that this particular vantage point left much to be desired.

As luck would have it, our group experienced the break in California’s dry spell to a tune of over 6 inches of rain in less than 2 days. The aftermath of the rainfall was truly magical as all of the waterfalls were rejuvenated and the rivers sprung back to life.

After shuffling the schedule around a bit due to the rain, we were able to venture to the Valley View pull-off to begin a night of shooting. The swollen river produced a far more interesting foreground as it created new channels and connected the recently dried grass tussocks with the flow of the water.

Setting up near several of the workshop participants, we worked through the blue hour exposures (with focus stacking to accommodate the extreme depth of the scene) and waited for astronomical twilight to end.

Simply waiting and watching as the glow faded from the mountains was worth the whole excursion. After the show of color ended and we counted the lights of the climbers making camp on the vertical cliffs, darkness finally fell and we began our sky exposures. I chose to create star trails via a stack of three 5-minute exposures in the hopes of creating motion in the sky that would echo that of the river and that implied a mirror of the motion of the foreground grasses.

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Your Turn

What was your favorite night photograph of 2021? We’d love to see it! Share in the comments below, or on our Facebook page, or on Instagram (tag us @nationalparksatnight #nationalparksatnight #seizethenight). Be sure to tell a story too—the technical aspects, the challenge overcome, or a tale of the experience.

Then … have a Happy New Year!

Gabriel Biderman is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He is a Brooklyn-based fine art and travel photographer, and author of Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots (Peachpit, 2014). During the daytime hours you'll often find Gabe at one of many photo events around the world working for B&H Photo’s road marketing team. See his portfolio and workshop lineup at www.ruinism.com.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Five Questions: Aurora Noise, Portable Stools, Moving Lightroom and More

Welcome to the 20th installment of our “Five Questions” series. Know what that means? We’re about to answer our 100th question for you!

This installment features inquiries about noise reduction with auroras, internal intervalometers, portable stools, Luxli lights and moving a Lightroom catalog to a new drive.

If you have any questions you would like to throw our way, please contact us anytime. Questions could be about gear, national parks and other photo locations, post-processing techniques, field etiquette, or anything related to night photography. #SeizeTheNight!

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1. No Noise in Auroras

Question:

Do you use long exposure noise reduction when shooting auroras? I was trying to shoot some in Minnesota and the person I was with had it enabled in her Canon. — Claron G.

Auroras over Westfjords, Iceland. Nikon D750 with a 14mm lens. 10 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400. © Gabriel Biderman.

Answer:

You shouldn’t need long exposure noise reduction (LENR) for shooting auroras in cold temperatures. Your Canon friend was probably taking advantage of Auto LENR, which is a feature available only in Canon cameras.

Most high-in-the-sky aurora shots should be exposed for 2 to 8 seconds, otherwise the waves of light can blur together and you lose their interesting shapes. At such short shutter speeds, I wouldn’t be concerned about long exposure noise with any digital camera made in the last 10 years—especially in the cold temperatures we’re usually shooting auroras in. In most cameras, LENR would even slow you down, because you wouldn’t be able to shoot when the noise reduction is processing between exposures. — Gabe

2. Ignoring Internal Intervalometers

Question:

Considering that the prosumer Nikon Z cameras have fairly good built-in intervalometers, why are you still using external intervalometers? Do they add capability or is it just a convenience thing? — Mark K.

Answer:

There are two issues we have with built-in intervalometers. The first is that most—no matter which camera brand—are terribly confusing. Even after using mine regularly I still make mistakes while setting it up.

The second is that even with a built-in intervalometer, you’re limited to the maximum shutter speed of the camera, and many cameras do not provide for timed exposures longer than 30 seconds. This means you can’t shoot a series of 1-, 2- or 4-minute exposures with the built-in intervalometer, but rather need to shoot a huge stack of 30-second exposures. (The Nikon Z 6II does have the ability to shoot at 15 minutes, so that’s a help if you use that particular camera.)

Using an external intervalometer can be inconvenient, but does have some benefits. For example, being able to look at the intervalometer and see where you are in the exposure count, being able to set odd exposure times (e.g., 45 seconds or 2.5 minutes), and being able to set the number of shots at infinity. — Tim

3. Oft-Folding Stool

Question:

In your e-book about meteor showers you mention the Walkstool Comfort chair. I have a similar (but cheaper) stool that I use when doing macro and insect photography. I find it very comfortable, but very annoying to move. If I pick it up with one hand, holding the camera with the other hand, I can’t move the stool without it collapsing, and then it’s just about impossible to reopen and reposition one-handed. Does the Walkstool have the same issue? — Judy L.

Answer:

Yes, the Walkstool (which I use and own) does collapse when you pick it up. That’s a nice feature for many situations, but I agree that it’s not ideal for the needs you describe. — Matt

4. a Luxli Buffet

Question:

I just went to B&H Photo’s website and looked at lights. There are lots more options than I could have imagined. I remember you mentioning a Viola at one point, but I didn’t catch the other you mentioned. Which lights would you recommend? — Mark K.

Answer:

At the moment Luxli has four lights worth considering, and two that we recommend for night work.

In the former category: The Cello and Timpani models are great for what they’re great at, but we don’t suggest them for what we do—both are too bright for most dark-sky night photography.

Which brings us to our favorites: The Viola is the tool we have loved since the very first time we tested one, in early 2017. It gives you accurate control over color temperature and the ability to illuminate a scene at very low power. The relatively new Fiddle has the ability to go dimmer still (to 0.1 percent power, when using the Conductor app), something we take advantage of quite a bit. — Lance

5. Migrating Lightroom Files

Question:

I bought a new 8 TB solid state drive to use for my images and Lightroom catalog, to replace my old 1 TB drive. What’s the best way to transfer all the files and catalog to the new drive without messing up Lightroom? Do I use the Move function within Lightroom or move them in Windows Explorer? I suspect this means I will need to update my preferences in Lightroom so it knows the new location of the catalog and files. — Roy B.

Answer:

As a PC user, you’re in luck, because you can trick Lightroom into seeing your new drive as its normal location.

1. Close Lighroom (important first step, otherwise you’ll also be copying a lock file, which will give you trouble later).

2. Copy everything from your old hard drive to your new one.

3. In Windows, change the drive letter of your new drive to whatever your old one was. (So if your old drive is G, change your new one to G.) You might need to unplug your old drive and reboot the computer in order to have access to the old drive letter.

4. Open Lightroom again and the catalog should load seamlessly.

The Lightroom program should never even know the difference. It will see everything exactly as it was before, not even knowing that it’s looking at a different physical location for the data. — Chris

Chris Nicholson is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT