The Mage By Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Mautao The Mage Had Traveled Far

Bisti Badlands by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook The badlands of New Mexico are a fabulously sculpted and otherworldly place. There is Low Level Lighting (LLL) with LED Light Panels, dimmed very low to near starlight intensity and left on for the entire exposure. The idea is to add subtle lighting to accent detail. Royce Bair and myself have created a public service website, www.lowlevellighting.org, to explain Low Level Lighting. For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne

Dunes by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Located near Monument Valley. We were introduced to this very remote place by out guide, Quanah Parker from Majestic Monument Valley tours. We (Eric Gail and myself) would never have know that this place existed without his excellent guiding. Single Exposure, Nikon 810A, 24 mm, f 2.0, ISO 10,000, 15 sec. 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! 

Joshua Tree at Night by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Joshua Tree National Park, California. Canon 1Dx camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens with an adaptor, f 2.8, ISO 6400. Lighting with Low Level Lighting (LLL). For more about this technique see lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . 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

The Two Legged Hoodoo by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website Instagram Facebook Valley of Dreams, New Mexico. Nikon D810A camera, Nikon 14-24 mm lens, at f 2.8, 14 mm, 25 sec., and ISO 6400. There is lighting with Low Level Lighting. For a tutorial please look here: www.lowlevellighting.org For more images like this please take a look at my website here . Thanks for all the kind support! Hope you enjoy! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family. Cheers, Wayne

Totem Pole Panorama by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Panorama of the Totem Pole in Monument Valley, Utah. 11 images, 24 mm vertically, f 2.8, 15 sec., ISO 12,800. Thanks for all the kind support over the last year, it is much appreciated! A big thank you to the wonderful Flickr family!

To Walk a Pale Land, Part 3 by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Part 3 of a series, "To Walk a Pale Land". New Mexico Badlands. Single Exposure. Low Level Lighting (LLL) with one small Goal Zero Micro Lantern turned down low and about 40 meters away to the left. 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!

Question and Answers

Using the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8  vs.  Rokinon-Bower 24 f/1.4 

Question: Wayne, do you shoot with the 24mm because there is less distortion when you stitch the images together? I'm just curious why the rokinon 24 vs say the Nikon 14-24 at 14mm , which is a wonderful lens. I understand the rokinon has a larger aperture but at 24 mm, max exposure time is reduced. Obviously you knocked this image out of the ballpark - would love to know a bit more about the lens choices for panoramas. Thanks and keep up the fantastic work.

Answer: Well, first of all, at 24 mm my version of the 24/1.4 is remarkably sharp, even at f/1.4. It is sharper and has less coma than the Nikon 14-24 at f/2.8. The Nikon is a wonderful lens, and is my most used and versatile lens, but if I am shooting at 24 mm then the 24/1.4 is better. Second, it lets in more light. I can push the histogram more to the right. There is some danger in overexposing the stars, and I was concerned about that, but it worked out. I actually took the pano at several settings and chose the best one. By pushing the histogram more to the right, I get much more detail in the foreground, and that was the goal. For example, some photographers have argued that if you shoot the same photo with an ISO of 6400 and 12,800, all other settings being equal, the 12,800 will actually have less noise in the darker foreground areas than the 6400 photo. The histogram is pushed to the right, the foreground looks lighter, asnd there is less noise there. This is because the dark pixels in the dark left side of the each have less information than the lighter pixels in the right side of the histogram. Less information in each dark pixel equals more noise in the image. The more you push the histogram to the right, the more information you have in each pixel and relatively less noise. Of course you have to avoid overexposing the sky. Overexposure is rarely a problem in night photography, lol. Anyway there are some people that advocate shooting at higher ISOs for that reason. There are discussions on the internet about it. Hope this helps! More light into the camera is good, especially when you are working at the limits of the cameras sensor!

Mono Lake by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Website, Instagram, Facebook Blend Sky: 16 images, 20 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400, 14 mm Foreground: 5 minutes, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 14 mm Mono Lake, California. These are tufas arising out of Mono Lake. They are formed from mineral deposits from springs beneath the lake bed over centuries and are exposed when the water level falls. The water level varies greatly. The paths I recorded 2 years ago during the drought are mostly underwater now. The largest concentration of tufas is along the south shore. When including the Milky Way you are usually facing south, so this makes it more difficult to photograph the tufas, lake, and MW at the same time. There are a few small “peninsulas” that stick out into the lake making it possible (but tricky) to shoot across the water facing S and include both tufas and the MW. There is a stack for the sky and a long exposure for the foreground (5minutes), blended in PS. Cheers, Wayne Pinkston

Joshua Tree Arch by Wayne Pinkston Via Flickr: Does anyone know the name of this "Arch"? This was taken near Hidden Valley in Joshua Tree National Park, Utah. I thought I had scouted the area pretty well in the day, but I never saw this in daylight. Towards the end of the night I was stumbling around in the dark (literally) and stumbled on this structure that looked like an arch, or either 2 large rocks with another one stuck between them. It was around 20-30 feet (6-10 meters) high. Anyway, the sun was about to rise so I set up the photos as fast as I could and was able to get this composition before it got overly light. There was not much time for adjusting lights. There is one constant light behind the "arch" and another on a small tripod about 45 degrees to my right. One problem with Joshua Tree is that there are enough trees and rocks to get in the way and cast shadows, so you have to find a window between the trees for any lighting. Another problem is the light pollution. There is considerable light pollution, but in general you can work around it in processing. This is a single exposure. Hope you enjoy! All comments are welcomed. Please join me at: Website Facebook Blog Twitter