As the stars came out here in Joshua Tree, there was still enough glow from Palm Springs I believe to make for an interesting horizon. I did add some light painting from a weak light source to add some directional light. Even though this has become a more popular location, there was no one else there. It made for a very quiet and peaceful evening to hang out in the desert.
RyanDillender wrote:
Nice photo. It is always nice when you get those rare lonesome moments in the typically well visited locations.
Thanks Ryan, it was a really nice time! Glad you like this.
Jim
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OregonSun wrote:
Extra nice colors and stars here, I really like the figures too. There feels like too much empty space on the right to me.
Heron
Thanks Heron! I am glad you liked most of the shot. As for the right side, it's a good thing I didn't post the original as it had even more space on the right. I did crop some off the right already. My thinking was the glow on the horizon balances the right. It is mainly a night sky scene with stars, so other then cropping more stars out (which killed me with the first crop) I think this is how I like it best.
Jim - Love the lonesome pillar. I would not have guess this had light painting added. That is the most subtle and natural light painting I've seen in a long time. Dave
Great image Jim. I agree that you did a very nice job light painting, keeping the image natural looking. I thought about cropping the right side too, but I think it works as is too
I don't think I've seen another tripod the half dozen or so times I've camped at this location. Hopefully my good lucky streak continues.
Really nice framing on this one and I love the deep blue color. I would be tempted to crop just a bit from the upper right and burn down some of the highlights in the lower right. Also looks like you have just a smidge of star trailing starting to appear. All in all though, very nice shot.
May 15, 2016 at 10:39 PM
Mark Metternich Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
I like the tranquility you captured here. The image does a great job of conveying that feeling.
Though I will say the shot you posted in Jan of last year, from this spot (Crown of Flames) with the awesome cloud formation, is my favorite.
dbehrens wrote:
Jim - Love the lonesome pillar. I would not have guess this had light painting added. That is the most subtle and natural light painting I've seen in a long time. Dave
Thanks Dave! As for the lighting I have been using the display of my iPhone as a light source. It's a soft light, and can be adjusted to just light up during the whole exposure. Which I find much easier then light sources that will paint too bright if used for more then 2 or 3 seconds.
Jim
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Tuan Le wrote:
Great image Jim. I agree that you did a very nice job light painting, keeping the image natural looking. I thought about cropping the right side too, but I think it works as is too
I don't think I've seen another tripod the half dozen or so times I've camped at this location. Hopefully my good lucky streak continues.
Glad you liked it Tuan! Coming fro
You that means a lot since i think you have the best shot from that location that I have seen.
As for being there alone, I thought it was pretty common for there to be more people there, or I just have some unlucky friends that keep going when there are workshops out there and they have to manuveur with 6 or 8 other people. Which wouldn't be fun.
I did have someone come up one time when I was there. I gladly asked him if he wanted to shoot from my spot, he said that's okay, don't worry as he has shot it before. Well come to find out 6 months later as I read a blog by this "famous" photographer who will remain nameless, that as he described the tremendous and dangerous obstacles ( cause we know all the big time photographers have stories of death and daring to validate their photos) well his death defying act was having to deal with another photographer who fiercely held him off with menacing stares and would not share his tripod holes with him. So alas he had to leave empty handed. And of course the comments in his blog were all feeling sympathy for this big time photographer who had to deal with such a horrible person. Of course I was this supposed horrible person. None of his commenters were smart enough to realize that this big shot photographer could easily have set up his tripod next to me. Nope, I was the villian and was told by the brave Internet commentators that I should have picked up my tripod and camera and moved out of the way for this guy.
It's sad the way so many of these popular big time photographers seem to have such fragile egos that they have to embellish every story and create danger and trials when there was nothing... Sad to have seen that.
I did crop some off the right already. My thinking was the glow on the horizon balances the right. It is mainly a night sky scene with stars, so other then cropping more stars out (which killed me with the first crop) I think this is how I like it best.