Autumn Night on Mt. Rainier

coscorrosa

And a sunrise photo at the end!

The weather at Mt. Rainier has been overcast and rainy the last few weeks, which is good for some types of photography (streams, waterfalls, forests, wildlife, detail shots of flowers and foliage, etc.) but not so good for sunrise/sunset/night photography. There was a brief break in the forecast Friday night through Saturday, so I left work early on Friday to try and catch it. The fact that there was a full moon meant I wasn't going to be getting any sleep from sunset through sunrise if the weather behaved (and it did and I didn't!).

Here are some of my favorites from the trip:

#1: Star trails above Edith Creek:



The clouds started to move in after that, which prevented a longer star trails shot, but there were still a lot of opportunities for other types of night shots.

#2: Moving clouds above Edith Creek:



And a hundred feet downstream...

#3: Moonlight and Myrtle Falls:



#4: After that it was a quick nap in the car before sunrise at Reflection Lakes:

ront

Just awesome pics Ron!! I love everyone of them!! The fact that these were taken after dark is just amazing to me.

Ron

scole

I dunno. With the exception of #1, I find most of the moonlit shots too much. No problems with the compositions but there really isn't much to distinguish these shots from ones taken during daylight.

Roaddog 52

Great set Ron, love the full moon images and the sunrise is a bonus.

Phil

bgarland

I love these. As usual well done. Your moon light captures are what motivated me to go out start experimenting in the moon light.

hawkeye978

Technically all the shots are great. Good composition and lighting. But I tend to agree with Steve that perhaps you may want to look at actually darkening the first two to give a better sense of night. You should be able to dodge areas locally to retain the detail while still strongly suggesting night.

NorthernFocus

I'm never disappointed when I look at one of your posts, Ron. Man you had a perfectly still morning at Reflection Lake. Nice stuff

dlplumer

Just another ho-hum beautiful set, Ron bow

jayegirl

great work

JimKarczewski

I like them...

Ron, how long was the exposure on #1? I'm going to Moab next week and there will be no moon for 2 weeks, so I'm going to do light painting, but would also love to do some star trails as well.

pjordan

Very cool shots! I like them alot!

Could you describe your technique for these? I've never heard of shooting like this.

Cheers,
pjordan

coscorrosa

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone!

To answer a few questions that were raised:

1) That you can't distinguish the non star-trails shot from day time shots:

I disagree. The cloud movement, the stars, the shade of blue in the sky, and the muted even lighting on the foreground are all dead giveaways that these shots were taken under moonlight. I don't expect the general public to be able to pick up all of these things necessarily (but they should know that something is a little off - which is part of the point), but as photographers there should be enough clues there.

2) That the shot may work better if it was more obvious it was night (by darkening it, etc.).

If this is coming from "it should be darker because I think it would look better that way" that's perfectly fine, if it's coming from "it should be darker to more accurately reflect the scene as it was" or "to distinguish it more from a daytime shot" I disagree.

My point in taking photos is not to objectively record what is in front of me. I am not an unbiased observer. I'm trying to enforce a viewpoint and communicate a specific feeling to the viewer. If you restrict yourself to a literal interpretation you're severely limiting your creative possibilities. It's not enough to see with your eyes, you need to visualize the scene with your brain and try to impart your view on it.

In the context of these photographs, my intent wasn't "hey, check out these night shots!"

Here's an example, this shot was taken at night well before dawn, a literal interpretation would be about 3-4 stops under exposed, but (to me) would fail evoke the same feeling:

coscorrosa

JimKarczewski wrote: »

I like them...

Ron, how long was the exposure on #1? I'm going to Moab next week and there will be no moon for 2 weeks, so I'm going to do light painting, but would also love to do some star trails as well.

That was 14 exposures combined (ISO 320, f/7.1, 16mm, at 5 minutes), the scene was front lit by a full moon which is why the foreground is so evenly lit. In the absence of a moon you'll either have to do some creative blending (taking a shot at dawn for example, waiting for an hour, and then doing the star trails shots), or light painting, or just using a silhouette as the foreground.

Here's a tutorial that explains the technique in more detail:

http://dgrin.smugmug.com/Tutorials/Photography-Projects/Startrails/13098771_t6ehR

scole

We will just agree to disagree about this then.

I don't think that cloud movement is a dead giveaway of a nighttime extended exposure. Marc Adamus is a recognized landscape photographer who regularly includes cloud movement into his compositions which are shot during daylight or sunset/sunrise times of day.

I gravitate towards realism so it's just an artistic difference of opinion. To each their own!

squirl033

i kinda agree with Steve... except for the stars, the first three shots are pretty tough to tell from long-exposure daylight images which you could get with an ND filter. the even lighting is a bit untypical for a sunny day, but even that's not uncommon on one of our "filtered sun" days. that being said, they're all excellent shots, as i've come to expect from you. i must say, though, i'm amazed at how much like daylight these DO look... one wouldn't expect images shot at night, even with a full moon, to be so bright and colorful. i guess that's a limitation of human eyesight that camera sensors don't share...

kdog

Amazing and inspiring work, Ron!

The lighting is awesome in these shots. I've got to get out at night more. Oh, and maybe move up to the PNW. You really do have some amazing scenery up there.

Cheers,
-joel

ritewinger

I like them all the way you shot them. Great work, as usual.....

Toonartist

I would love to be able to single one out that I love but I can't, they are all superb!!

Duncan

coscorrosa

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone. I'll definitely be back there this year one or two more times, hopefully more. I want to get some star trails AND snow on the trees.

squirl033

coscorrosa wrote: »

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone. I'll definitely be back there this year one or two more times, hopefully more. I want to get some star trails AND snow on the trees.

now THAT would be something to see!