More Night Photography

Okay, I have a bunch of assignments to tell you about!  First up is star points...This one is really kind of boring cause I haven't been able to take anything better with all the clouds in the sky here in Vegas...but you get the idea.  You want the stars to be points so you can only leave the shutter open long enough to get the stars and not the movement of the earth along with it. 

Next is Star Trails...these are very cool.  The longer you leave your shutter open the longer the trails will be as the earth moves! 
The above picture was a 40 minute exposure.
Also a 40 minute exposure.

 
This was just under an hour.  The tight circle is around the north star. 

We lit up the trees for a few seconds in this shot (40 minute exposure).  The really bright "star" is actually a planet (Venus I think). 

This exposure was 2 hours long.  All the star shots were taken up at my parent's cabin outside of Paragonah, UT.  Had to get away from Vegas so the city lights didn't block out the stars.  Wendhy and Ashleigh came with and we had a blast for two nights staying up into the wee hours to get some nice shots!  

Next up is painting with light.  We did these at the Neon Bone Yard here in Vegas (it was a class field trip).  It was awesome.  Since Wendhy, Ashleigh, and I worked as a team we were able to use several colored gels at the same time to get some neat effects.  The exposures on these were about 40 seconds long. 

Basically you walk through your fame with a flashlight and light up the sections you want to appear a certain color.  The one above I did on my own (it is the old Sahara sign...there was some awesome stuff in the Bone yard).  You can see where I was walking because of the random light flashes from my flash light...because I was moving the whole time I don't appear in the photo.  Not enough light on me at any given time!

 
The old Sliver Slipper and it's sign.  Wendhy and Ashleigh lit up the shoe with regular flash lights and I had a red gel on my flash light and lit up the sign behind it. 

 
The Duck was sweet.  I was doing yellow, Wendhy was doing orange, and Ashleigh did the blue.  
This is one of my favorites!  Wendhy was the brave one behind the skull lighting up the mouth, I was doing red on the letters and Ashleigh was lighting up the bottom of the letters with orange.  So you have an idea of how big this things is, the letters are about 6 feet tall. 

Next up is my student choice assignment.  I was going to do Fireworks, but the other night we had lightening and I actually caught some!   Because the city lights are so bright I could only do 5 second exposures.  I stood out on the sidewalk with my sister, Whitney, and just kept pressing the shutter release button every five seconds for about an hour, only stopping to move the camera angle a bit here and there.  This is what I got!

 

These first ones are exactly how they looked in the camera...very orange from all the city light bouncing off the clouds!  

I edited the ones below to look more like it does to the natural eye...

So that is all I have for now!  Stay tuned for some Cityscapes and flood lit buildings, along with some indirect urban light!  

Night Photography

This summer I am taking a Night Photography class and it has been a blast!  I am a little behind in updating with my assignments since the class is going so quickly, but I thought I would show you what I have had to turn in so far.  Our first Assignment was shooting correctly exposed Neon...I decided to play with my zoom a bit...here is what I got:  (note:  you need a locking cable release and a "B" or Bulb setting to do most of this stuff at night). 

I had some camera shake from my weak tripod (you need a really sturdy one to be doing these longer exposures) and that is why the Always Open part looks wavy.  The exposure was 1 second long and all I did was zoom my lens after releasing the shutter.  

My next assignment was Traffic Trails...look these up on Google and you can get a really cool look at what you can get if you have the right angles and lots of patience.  Here is what I got:

My exposure was somewhere close to 20 seconds...long enough to get the lights, but the car won't show up unless it stops for at least 5 seconds or more.

Next up was one of my favorites so far in class, Moonlight Landscapes.  If they are properly exposed, the pictures should look just like sunlight.  It is best to take these with a full moon or a Gibbous moon.  We had a Gibbous since we couldn't get far enough away from Vegas to take them until the weekend (three days after the full moon).  Wendhy and Ashleigh came with (my mom was kind enough to drive us).  We drove out to Ivins Utah and didn't get back until 4am but we had a blast! Here is what I got:   

This first one was a 16 minute exposure and the moon had just risen.  You can see the lights from the town across the way and the neat part is the star trails in the sky! 

This one was also a 16 minute exposure.  I put a duotone layer over the original shot to make it look more like night.

This one was a 14 minute exposure and you can totally see how much light you can get from the moon...looks just like day huh?  If it weren't for the star trails in the sky you wouldn't know it was taken at 3 am!  

That's what I have so far!  Stay tuned for some painting with light, and star trails!  I am having so much fun!