Impossible Milky Way over Seattle
In the debate over how much augmentation makes a picture "fake," my basic rule is, I don't use Photoshop or other tools to create something that doesn't appear in nature - unless that's the point of the image, in which case, I'd be very clear that it's a fantasy. So, No - you can't see the Milky Way over Seattle like this, but only because the lights of the city obscure it. If everyone in Seattle agreed to turn out their lights on a Summer evening, this is the sky we would see. For this image, I stole the sky from a spot near Mount St. Helens, and placed it over the Seattle, shot from Gasworks park.
A tall version of the General Store at Fort Rock Ghost town. This shot reaches nearly to the northern horizon.
I'd been playing with photographing crashing waves for a chunk of the day, and not really getting anything great, so I decided to get out from behind the viewfinder and enjoy the sunset with Karen. That's when she said "Wouldn't that wave crashing in front of the sunset make a nice shot?" Needless to say, she was right. I shot about 15 exposures; the rest are just ok, but this one is just all right.
Takhlakh Lake Milky Way Reflection
In late August of 2016, I went to Takhlakh lake for two nights Milky Way photography. The orange glow on the left side is a rogue camp-fire. There are no fire pits on that side of the lake. These rule-breakers added the perfect warm contrast to the cool blue of the night. This panoramic picture is made up of 32 individual images - 4 rows, with 8 shots in each one.
I spent 45 minutes picking the perfect spot to shoot the stars, tripod set, lens focused, and I was about to enjoy my sandwich, when I saw the Sun pop through. All plans due to revision, when beauty presents.
I love the textures in this shot. It looks like a map of a real place you could visit. I took this with a 600mm lens. People often shoot the full moon, but there's more shadow and texture on a partially obscured moon.
I was at the intersection of Denny and Aurora, waiting for the light to change when I really took notice of this retro neon sign. Photographing it was an experiment that turned out exceptionally well. As grimy and broken down as it is in the day, by night it's pristine and clean light. I have a print of this one, and it's beautiful.
Everyone photographs the falls, because they're stunning, but they often miss the semi-treacherous hike down to the river. I shot this with my favorite lens (Sigma 35 prime). The detail in that rock wall is fantastic. I have a 6' wide metal print of this in my home, and wish I'd printed it bigger.
At the bottom of the frame is Mt Rainier, and a couple spooky trees, at the top are the pines on the hillside behind me, and stretched between is the entire Milky Way.
They say the town of Govan is haunted. Apparently, there were a couple unsolved axe murders in the early 1900's. How's that for old school ? Pun acknowledged.
This is one of my favorite shots. It can be a bit disorienting at first. On the bottom, you see an old school windmill, on the southern horizon, on the top you see the northern horizon, with a modern wind turbine, and the Milky Way stretches between them. The wind turbine on top looks smaller because it's farther away. This is a panoramic image, so it has the pixels to be printed HUGE. If you're looking at it on a large monitor, it may appear pixelated, but that's just because the preview image is being stretched to many times its size. If you want to print this 50' tall, contact me. I'm serious, it'll go that big.
This is a frame from a time lapse I shot at Crater Lake. Wizard island is in the dark at the bottom, right. Crater Lake is one of the darkest places you'll find in the lower 48.
When you go to Palouse Falls, you either stay up all night, or get up at dawn to take this picture. It simply is what one does.
In the Spring of 2016 I went to the top of Columbia Tower at least half a dozen time to shoot time lapses of the city. There are so many things to shoot up there, but the weather doesn't always cooperate, so I went again and again, until I got it right. This is a still from a moody time lapse I shot on a foggy evening
I visited NYC in June of 2016. I loved the energy of the city, and the best part of being a night photographer coming from the West Coast to the East was that staying up late came easy!
I was in a Milky Way Photography workshop, and we were fighting the clouds this night, so we focused on the foreground. This gnarled old pine stands guard over Crater Lake
This is one of the first successful Milky Way pics I ever took. I lucked into a good location (there are no bad ones at Crater Lake), and used everything I had learned thus far to capture the entire MW.
It took two nights to get this shot. The land was shot from Johnston Ridge Visitor Center, and the sky from a couple miles West of there. I chose two locations to get the best view of the caldera, while pushing the light pollution of Portland away from the core of the Milky Way
Karen and I roamed the streets of NYC late this night, looking for interesting sights to photograph. There were many, everywhere we turned. I believe the blue light passing by is a bicycle.
I was shooting time lapses from the rooftop at Rockefeller Center, and kept coming back to the simple beauty of this building. It's a luxury condo building at432 Park Avenue. What you see here is just the part of the building that sticks above everything else on the NYC horizon
Brookes Memorial State Park is an out of the way place in Southeast Washington. On the bottom is the southern horizon, at the top, the northern horizon, and the Milky Way Stretches between them.
After visiting Rainier with friends,I went back by myself to shoot the moon and landscape. I made a metal print of this one as a gift for a friend. It's beautiful, and so sharp!
Kiwanda state park is full of beautiful sights. Here, the tide was coming in, and the little stream was rapidly becoming a river. The Milky Way was kind enough to line up just right!
Takhlakh Lake is a gem, hidden deep in the Gifford Pinchot Forest. In August of 2016 I camped there with a few good friends. This late in the season, the Milky Way is pretty far West by the time it's dark enough to photograph. That makes it difficult to photography in conjunction with the mountain, so I decided to focus on the mountain, rather than the MW. I set up my camera and left it to shoot an all night time lapse. It's always a risk leaving it out, so when I left the comfort of my sleeping bag at dawn, I was pleased to find my camera exactly where I'd left it. I was even more pleased to see the lenticular clouds in the images. This shot is part of a time lapse you can view in the time lapse section of the site.
