Mountain Lake By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Mountain Lake In The Sierra

Podcast: “F-Stop Collaborate and Listen”

Conversation with Matt Payne

I was honored to be included in the podcast F-Stop Collaborate and Listen with Matt Payne. Matt hosts a very enjoyable Podcast where he interviews landscape photographers about a variety of subjects. Thanks Matt!

You can listen to the podcast here:

https://fstopandlisten.podbean.com

or here:

https://www.podbean.com/media/player/audio/postId/7674059?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffstopandlisten.podbean.com%2Fe%2F021-wayne-pinkston%2F

Just a Walk in the Park by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Arches National Park at night in winter, along the trail to Landscape Arch and Devil's Garden. Landscape Arch would be off to my right. The was a beautiful and quiet night. I just love the was snow absorbs sound making the world seen very peaceful. There were animal tracks all around but I saw no animals. This is the far northern end of the Northern Arm of the Milky Way. The red color may be faint red airglow. Taken at 14mm, f 2.8,, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family out there. Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

The Castle Gate by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Castle Gate: There is Low Level Lighting (LLL) from 2 sources. There is a small Goal Zero Micro Lantern just behind the tunnel turned down low, and a Ceneroid LED light Panel on a light stand behind me and to the left, also turned down low. The Cineroid has a variable color temperature and is set to about 4000-4200K. The rock here is very red-orange, and if you use a light temperature much lower (warmer) that this then the rock turns very unnaturally red. Stacked image, 19 mm, f/2.8, 15 sec., ISO 10,000.

Lake Mead Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a panorama of Lake Mead between Arizona and Nevada, a man made lake created by the Hoover Dam. This was taken from Stewarts Point near The Valley of Fire State Park, and about a one hour drive from Las Vegas. I had made a trip to photograph the Valley of Fire Park but a Park Ranger stopped me and told me I could not photograph there at night without a permit, so it was on to "plan B". I drove to Lake Mead trying to salvage something from the night. This is a 15 photo panorama combined in Lightroom, taken with a Canon 1Dx and a Nikon 14-24 mm lens at f 2.8, 30 sec, 14 mm and ISO 6400. This is about a 240 degree panorama so the sides of the photo are looking in opposite directions. The light pollution on the right is Las Vegas about 60 miles (100 Km) away, and the light pollution on the left in Moapa Valley about 15 miles (25 Km) away. The streak in the sky is a plane with very bright lights (coming in to land at Las Vegas). It looks a bit like a comet and I thought it was a point of interest. The water level has dropped in recent years due to drought and the bank where I am standing used to be many meters below the water level. Pierreeau photographie suggested the light was a UFO. This is a very reasonable guess since I am pretty sure there are lots of aliens in Las Vegas disguised as Elvis. Hope you enjoy! All comments are welcomed. Please join me at: Website Facebook Blog

Questions and Answers

How to take vertical photos and panoramas:

Question: What do you use to mount the camera vertically for your panos?

Answer: I use an "L" bracket. Here are photos from a Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=l+bracket+camera&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1584&bih=1295&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwit5fCbseLPAhXJHT4KHaYqAu0Q_AUICSgC

It screws on the bottom of the camera, and will attach to the tripod head either horizontally or vertically. It is Much better than turning the tripod head vertically, with the camera hanging to the side. The camera, when vertically with the L bracket, is balanced over the center of the tripod, and is much more stable than if you turn the whole tripod head sideways. Also, because the center of rotation is closer to the sensor plane there is much less parallax. Parallax has not been an issue for me. I use an Acratex L bracket and tripod head. There are many brands, and you just need to make sure the L bracket fits with whatever tripod head you are using. You can also use a nodal rail to further prevent paralax, This helps to center the sensor plane right over the center of rotation. In my night images paralax problems have not been a issue however when using the Acratex L bracket. Hope this helps, Cheers, Wayne

http://waynepinkstonphoto.com

The Milky Way over the Coral Sea by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This image was taken along the NE coast of Australia, between Cairs and Port Douglas, along the area known as the Coral Sea. This is the area of the Great Barrier Reef. We had planned a vacation with some friends, and the conditions did not to look favorable for any night photography, so I almost did not take my tripod. I happened to notice that this area was remarkably dark on the Dark Sky Finder App, and there would be a few hours of darkness after Moonset in the early a.m. on 2 nights we were there, so I took the tripod along and I was glad I did. After the moon set the Milky Way and stars were as beautiful as I had ever seen them, with the structure of the Milky Way and gas clouds clearly visible to the naked eye. It was a great experience to be there just to see the sky. The light pollution in the distance is a resort and the town of Cairns. This is a panorama of approximately 210 degrees. This is a combination of 15 vertical images, taken with a Canon 6D camera, and a Canon 16-35 mm lens, at f 2.8, 16 mm, 20 sec exposures, and ISO 12,800. Combining images in a panorama remarkably decreases noise. The Milky Way arches high overhead in the Southern Hemisphere, so you need a lot of vertical coverage to include it all, especially later in the night. The moon had just set so the was a little ambient light still remaining when I took this series. Hope you enjoy! 

The Hanging Hoodoo by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook “The Hanging Hoodoo”. I’ve been away from Flickr for many months unfortunately. It’s been a busy summer and I have a whole season of photos to process and post, and I’m just finally getting around to it. If anyone is still actually following me, then many thanks. 🙏🙏🙏 I had the opportunity to explore an area in New Mexico that I had not been to before, an area outside of the usual photo locations, and I found this “Hanging Hoodoo”. I was immediately enamored by the photo potential. I was able to return at the next new moon and get this photo. Next year I’ll return and get the scene with the Milky Way to the left of the hoodoo, but it was too late in the year to get it this time. I could just make a composite and paste a MW to the left of the hoodoo, but I try to keep it real. It’s a lot more fun and challenging to make it work out in actuality than just adding a MW. A lot more trouble too, lol. I think this would be a major photo op for photographers if anyone knew about it. I was lucky to find it. There is a 20 image stack for the sky and a 5 minute exposure for the foreground, blended in PS, all taken from the same position, back to back. Thought for the day... “The night is a tunnel, a hole into tomorrow..." ... Frank Herbert Thanks for looking! Wayne Pinkston

Canyon Country by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Canyon Country. This is the view from Muley Point atop Cedar Mesa in southern Utan. It is near the top of the Moki (Mokey) Dungway, a spectacular dirt road that drops 1,200 feet or 400 meters from the top of Cedar Mesa down into the valley below. The views are spectacular, looking from southern Utah all the way to Arizona and Monument Valley. This is canyon country, atop the vast Colorado Plateau, occupying parts of Utah,Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. The plateau is around 5,000 - 6,000 feet or 2,000 meters high, with innumerable deep canyons and gulches. You mostly travel on top of the plateau or mesas, and descend into the canyons. It is like an endless wonderland to explore. I love the night photos taken on mountain tops, but this is a bit different. You are atop the mesas looking down, but you are looking down into deep dark canyons. There is not much light down there!!! Hopefully I have captured some of the beauty. This is a composite image consisting of a 15 sec., ISO 6400 image for the sky, and a 5 minute ISO 1600 images of the foreground, taken back to back. Both taken at 24 mm, f/2.0 with a Rokinon 24 mm f/1.4 lens. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Big thanks to the wonderful Flickr family for all the support and encouragement! Cheers, Wayne Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

Chimney Rock by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Chimney Rock, Escalante, Utah, USA. This was taken during a workshop with Royce Bair. His workshops are highly recommended. Escalante is one of the darker places I have seen in the USA. The sites are very spread out, and there is quite a bit of driving on dirt roads involved, but the scenery is great, and there are relatively few visitors compared to other places. This was taken with a Canon 6D, Nikon 14-24 mm lens at 14 mm, f 2.8, 30 sec, and an ISO of 8000. Phil did a great job of standing still for 30 sec. It's a lot harder than it sounds! Hope you enjoy! All comments are welcomed. 

The Pillars of the Sky by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook The Pillars of the Sky: looking up in a borrow canyon in Utah. Low Level Lighting (LLL) used with 2 Cineroid LED light panels turned to low and used at a relatively neutral to slightly warm color temp of 4200K. The rock here is so “red” (actually orange) that if you use a light that is too warm the rock can actually look red and very bizarre. ________________________________________________ This brings up an interesting topic, how the color temperature of your light combines with the color temperature settings in your camera (white balance). I shoot at a relatively neutral camera color temperature (white balance) of 4000-4200K, so a external light temp of 4000K might be neutral to slightly warm in color, and a light temperature of 3000K extremely warm (yellow). If you shoot at a camera color temperature (white balance) of 3200-3800K (very blue sky) then you might need warm light temperatures of 2700-3200k to make your scene look adequately warm (if you want a warm foreground). A light temperature of 2700K is often too warm for me shooting at a camera white balance of 4200K. Have I confused everyone, lol?