Abandoned Cathedral By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Inside An Abandoned Cathedral

Sipapu Bridge by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Sipapu Bridge, Natural Bridges National Monument Sipapu Natural Bridge in Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah, USA. The natural bridge is huge. Those are full trees under the bridge. The arch of the bridge is massive. Hiking down to the bridge at night is like hiking down into a magical land. The arch of bridge is 225 feet or 68 m wide, and the height is 144 feet, 44m. You hike down about 600 feet, 183m into the canyon along a dark trail. Suddenly you realize you have arrived, and looking up see a massive stone arch towering above your head, dwarfing all that is around, and making you feel very, very small. Single exposure for the sky, stacked exposures in camera for the foreground, taken consecutively from the same spot. Hope you enjoy! For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here. Cheers, Wayne

Shiprock by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is the iconic Shiprock for which the town of Shiprock is named in NE New Mexico. The rock rises 1583 feet (482 meters) above the desert plain, and can be seen for miles around. It is sacred to the Navajo people. The formation is similar to those in Monument Vally about 90 minutes to the West. This photo is Panorama of 11 vertical images combined in Photoshop and taken with a Canon 6D camera, and a Bower 24 1.4 lens at f 1.4, 20 sec, and ISO 6400. I wanted to get a more horizontal Milky Way and so this was taken relatively early in the night, near the crossover from twilight to true dusk (darkness). The illumination is from a very small crescent moon to my back, as well as some light pollution. The presence of the moonlight also tends to make the sky bluer in the photos. The yellows and oranges are not a sunset! The sun set to my back. This is light pollution from the town of Shiprock (population of around 8,000) approximately 10 miles (16 km) away. There are many reasons why this photo almost did not happen. I did not know that this monolithic rock even existed and I was traveling across northern New Mexico to get to the Bisti Badlands near Farmington. But you can see this huge rock for an hour or more as you drive across NW New Mexico. As I stared at the rock my driving dazed brain started to think "I wonder what this looks like at night"? And then there is no easy access to the rock. The nearest paved access is more than 2 miles (3 km) away and was on the wrong side of the rock (south side). As I was riding around I noticed a couple filming off of a dirt road and pulled over to talk. The woman seemed to be a Native American and assured me the land was not private or restricted. When I told her what I wanted to do she pulled a map out of her car that showed a maze of dirt roads. She showed me how to get to a position north of the formation and how to avoid impassable ravines and ridges. Thank you nice lady! And then there was the light pollution. It is best to be shooting away from the light pollution, but this time I had to shoot right into the brightest spot. I had doubts that the photo would succeed. As it turned out the light pollution could be used to enhance the photo. It is not a truly "dark" night photo, but is still interesting. And then I was supposed to be in another park, but the nice park ranger told me I could not shoot there at night as he gave me a speeding ticket. This was not the way I wanted to meet a ranger. And then the sky was so hazy near the horizon that night that I believed there was no way to get a clear photo. I just went ahead with the attempt just because I was already there. Anyway it turned out to be more colorful and interesting than expected. Thanks for looking. All comments are appreciated. Hope you enjoy! 

Teardrop Arch, Monument Valley by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Faceb ook Teardrop Arch in Monument Valley. Funny story showing how blind I can be. My guide in Monument Valley was Quanah Parker, and he suggested going to Teardrop Arch. I had 'never' seen or heard of it, but his suggestions were always good, so I agreed, and we had a fabulous night shooting this Arch, and some adjacent sites. I got back to the motel in the early morning, and there was a 36 inch, 1 meter photo of this same arch over the bed. I had been looking at it the better part of a week and had no clue what I was looking at. Wonder what I'm missing out in the open, lol. Shot at 14 mm, f 2.8, 25 sec., ISO 8000. Lighting with Low Level Lighting, www.lowlevellighting.org You need a local guide to take might tours in MV. If you want an excellent guide for night photography in Monument Valley, google Majestic Monument Valley Tours, contact them, and schedule a night tour with Quanah Parker. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.

Carpe Diem by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Carpe Diem: Sometimes it’s best to just stop and enjoy the moment. In our pursuit of beautiful photos we often get distracted with the chase itself, and them after we are there we get caught up in the technicalities of capturing the photograph. You you ever just stop and enjoy the scene or night sky? Some of my most enjoyable moments at night are when a few clouds roll in and I just lay down and watch the sky waiting for them to pass. The quiet solitude and beautiful sky are like a magic tonic erasing the cares of the day. Carpe Diem! ___________________________________________ Best wishes to all in this holiday season, and good shooting in the upcoming year! Wayne

Bell Tower by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook This one’s a bit abstract. We are looking up at the night sky and Milky Way in a bell tower of an old abandoned Cathedral in Madagascar. There is Low Level Lighting (LLL). The light inside the tower was a Goal Zero Micro Lantern, an omnidirectional light. The light outside was a Cineroid LED light panel set on 4000K and turned to low. ___________________________________________ There is a very large window in the front of the bell tower in the shape of a cross. Most of the glass has been broken out. ___________________________________________ There are 19 images stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker. 14-24 mm lens, 14 mm, 15 sec., f/2.8, ISO 12,800. Thanks for looking, Wayne

White Mesa Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook White Mesa Arch in Arizona. This is in the Navajo Nation and you should have a local guide to go there. This spot was completely off my radar until it was introduced to me by Quanah Parker who is with Majestic Monument Valley Tours. This trip caused me some embarrassment, lol. You have to climb a sandy hill to get to the arch. We parked down below, and I grabbed my gear and tripod and headed up. I set up the lights (Low Level Lighting) and tripod and reached for the camera, which wasn't there, sigh. It was still in the backseat of the car. You would think that you could at least remember the camera on a photo trip, sigh again... Anyway it was down the hill and back up the hill. The night was a success anyway. The arch is huge, and the view through the arch is wonderful. There is some light pollution form homesteads in the area. Many thanks to the model, Jacinda Wileto! For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

Wolfe Ranch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Still standing after all this time... This is the Wolfe Ranch in Arches National Park, Utah. John Wesley Wolfe and his son Fred moved to the area in 1898 and built this home in 1906 when his daughter, son-in-law, and their 2 children moved to the area to join them. The 6 of them lived in this 17 X 15 foot (5.2 X 1.6 m) home. There is a meteor just above the house. If you look closely you can see it turning from green to red as it descends. This is a single exposure. Thanks for taking the time to look. Hope you enjoy! Your time, faves, and comments are much appreciated! Please join me at: Website Facebook Instagram Blog

The Organ by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook This butte is called The Organ, located on the main road in Arches National Park, Utah, USA. This is a panorama of about 12 vertical images (some were cropped off the sides), taken with a Nikon 810A and Nikon 14-24 mm lens at 20 mm, f 2.8,20 sec., and ISO 12,800. Processed in PS and LR. This was taken from the path to "Park Avenue", a nearby area. The main challenge here was to get all the shots without car lights. Arches has become a very popular location for star gazing and night photography, and there is still a lot of traffic on the roads until midnight or so. The milky way was centered over The Organ shortly after twilight, and to get this composition you needed to shoot early. It took about 5 minutes to shoot the whole series, and 5 minutes without car lights was hard to come by. Due to the location near the road, car headlights can light up the formation from pretty far away. This was shot multiple times until I could get a series of photos with only a few interruptions. Anyway it worked out well. After midnight things get quieter in Arches, and most of the stargazers go home, but it's still a busy place for photographers. The butte is dimly lit with what I call "LLL", or Low Level Lighting. It is done with LED light panels (on tripods, and with warming filters) turned down very low to match starlight, and then left on the whole time. People passing by would not be able to see any light on the structure. 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

White Pocket Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Panorama at White Pocket, Arizona. 10 images, 14 mm, f 2.0, 25 sec., ISO 12,800. I think this might be my first pano of the MW Arch in August. Typically I find the MW is too high to get onto a single row Pano by that time of year. Somehow I was able to fit the whole sweep of the MW onto a vertical 14 mm Pano. You can tell it is getting late in the MW season because the core has set relatively quickly during the night. There is still plenty on MW to see though! Note the Andromada Galaxy near the top of the frame, above the Milky Way, to the right. For more images like this please take a look at Wayne Pinkston Photography . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. It's a pleasure to post here.

Shiprock Reprised by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: This is a panorama of Shiprock, the huge rock tower for which the town of Shiprock, New Mexico is named. Many photos back I posted a photo of Shipwreck from last year, and several people had expressed an interest in shooting there. We (myself, Chris Wray, Sandra Herber, and Eric Gail) shot there and ran into another group from Flickr including Willa Wei, Huibo Hou, and Wenjie Qiao. Some of their photos have been posted from the night, and it is fascinating to see how different photographers interpret what they capture. The photos vary quite a bit and reflect choices in processing and acquisition. Willa's group captured foreground photos at blue hour and as such they have more foreground detail which is beautiful. We arrived later and for the panoramas obtained a series of vertical single exposures, foreground included. This is series of 12 vertical images obtained with a 24 f1.4 Bower-Rokinon lens at 24 mm, f 1.4, 15 sec., andISO 12,800. The rock monolith is 1,583 feet, 482.5 meters high (from the surrounding plain). It is the remnant of the throat or central core of an extinct volcano, exposed over time by erosion. By the way, one of the photographers, Wenjie Qiao, has developed an excellent smartphone app called PlanIt, that helps to plan night photographs like this. Consider checking it out! 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