Milky Way and Rock Arches

During my recent trip to the Four Corners area I decided to switch to night photography in order to get some interesting images of the sandstone arches and other rock formations with the amazing desert sky Milky Way.

All images were shot as is in camera, except the view of the Horse Shoe bend in Arizona that required a double exposure due to the great variance in light from the sky to the dark canyon.

To light the rock we used various methods, all improvised on site and adapted to the local conditions.

For some we used professional lights (at Delicate Arch for example), for other we used moon light, for some we used flash lights (for Landscape arch we even shone them through tinted sunglasses to balance out the harsh blue cast of the LED light) and on one accession (Balanced Rock) we even used the lights of passing cars!

The lights from the cars were ruining our shots so we decided to try to incorporate them in to the image. it required timing the cars as they drove up the hill from and wait for the right moment to trigger the exposure. If we waited too long we only got half the rock lit, if we started too early it would be over exposed, but if we got it right the lights would shine evenly across the rock... lots of trial and error and lots of good laughs while we waited under the bright Milky Way!

For all images I purposefully kept the exposures slightly dark to simulate the real life experience. We could have lit them much more and made the images brighter and highly saturated but I wanted to make them look a bit more 'natural' and subdued

Two words: Resourcefulness and Improvisation.

From left to right:

Landscape Arch, lit using two LED lights shining though tinted sunglasses

Delicate Arch, lit using a professional light through a studio umbrella

Horseshoe Bend, double exposure (one for the sky and one for the land without moving the camera between exposures)

Credit where credit is due: Dave Cattell for being the best road trip companion and inspiration. Royce and Chris Bair for generously sharing the lights at Delicate Arch.