Gates of Heaven

I'm not a huge fan of sky motion, but this works for me.
Maybe a slight crop off the top for my taste.
What are the dot to dots going vertical (very faint), airplane ?

Wow! Ian, this is the most powerful nightly photograph I ever seen, it's very natural even with the star trails

Congrats

Pretty damn cool!

looks interesting. the stars are a bit dizzying - a tad less sky works better for me.
color combo is super.
georg

man, my eyes must be getting weak, I can barely notice those plane dots, thanks Matt, I missed those! This should get rid of those pesky dots. Las Vegas air traffic is a real pain in the backside.

Great color contrast and I love the foreground shape. I wonder what would happen if you increased the contrast in the sky a bit.

Thisa is really nice Ian. We don't have any of this terrain in South florida so I always enjoy these photographs, really like the detail.

Ian, they don't bother me at all. Just for fun, I counted six flights going thru your first shot !
3 at the lower left near the epicenter, three others going relatively vertical to some degree.
My job in post processing requires me to have an eye for details. Shoot me an email when you get a chance, I have a question for ya on your Outdoor Photography cover shot.

Dang, my eyes must suck too...I saw one trail after it was mentioned. I'm liking this Ian, the color contrast of course is great and the light painting is well done. I really like the touch of rim light.

Another killer shot Ian, no nits from me, excellent work!

You know, this is pretty cool, but what makes it really cool is that glow of light on the inside edge of the right part of the formation. That's just delicious!

thanks for mentioning that Laurent, I forgot about it. I walked back behind the sandstone formation and did some quick rimlighting with my flashlight.

Very interesting, Ian. The rock shapes are already so otherworldly I think the star trails actually work for me here, which they usually do not. I'm assuming that's some sort of cloud blur towards the center, which also adds to the scene.

thanks Mark. The blur is actually the luminosity of the Milky Way, trailing along with the stars.

Ian, your images are living up to their title of Dreamscapes. Are you serious that this was just a little LED headlamp? Impressive!

Simply amazing

Outstanding shot. The star trails and light painting are fantastic

Great color combo. I like it.

Very cool stuff; nice thought to use the red filter, which has the exact effect I think you were going for. Just wondering . . . do you leave in-camera NR on when you do a long exposure like this? I'm always on the fence about it, and generally prefer to try to clean up noise in software later on.

thanks Phil. I use in-camera noise reduction, as I find it typically does a fairly good job. I turn it off if it is cold enough out, as the sensor doesn't heat up when temps start getting below 40F.

The night stuff is weird and I don't know if I like it yet

Like the edge glow and the formation suggesting where to go.

Heard the road getting into this place is trecherous, only one way to find that out. Is it?

Another jaw dropper, Ian!

I like the contrast of the red rock against the night blue sky. While I am not a fan of star trails, they work OK here.

Steve, the road getting in is actually in really good shape, and easy enough to follow with good directions and a GPS. Any high clearance vehicle should have no problems getting in (frankly, I felt like I could have gotten a Honda Civic in there). I didn't need to use 4x4 at all. Of course, on my third trip in I got a flat tire . . . crappy rental car . . . but that could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere . . .

I still like your work when there are no llamas present and you have to make your own light! Marvelous color combo, and your use of the red filter on the rocks was fairly brilliant as it does look quite natural.

Oh Man you sure rule this world!

Very cool.

- Dan.

Very cool image Ian, really beyond superlatives. I think one of those vertical dots might be me You're becoming so well known for these Dreamscape images that I think a call to LA Center for a slight pause in the departures flow might work!

Crazy motion. Killer shot. Very unique!

Excellent!

Love the color contrast and the placement of the sandstone relative with the stars!
How long was the exposure? Is this 'Little Finland'?

Hey John, 20 minute exposure. Yeah, it's Little Finland, which I think is a sucky name, so I go by the less used variation of Hobgoblin's.

Great work Ian!. Just love all of this. Very dramatic rocks formations

Ordinarily i dont care for star trails, but must admit this is fantastic!

This is really something. The landscape seems so connected with the heavens here. Nice work, Ian.

Amazing.

What is a pain is Las Vegans! The most arrogant and ignorant city I have ever lived in with the worst drivers in the US (about 2-5 people go completely through the reds at any given intersection). I'll never leave Oregon again!!! Recently it was voted the 2nd dumbest city in America. They never fix the problems here and 50% of the kids don't graduate from high school! I won’t go crazy on the subject though. One nice thing about being here is how close it is to a lot of beauty. BTW, Ian you have inspired a photography student of mine to start hitting these near places much more. So, pretty soon I'll be heading out with him and hope to also come up with some great weird shots too. Thanks for the inspiration.



Question: Since you are going 20 minutes on exposure, are you shooting another shorter, more quality shot of the land to be able to get a nice print size with better quality detail there?

wow

Wow, great shot! Love the comp and I think the red filter was a good choice here.

wayne

Awesome, love the warm light.

Fantastic rock formations for subject matter. Very well done Ian.

Very cool.

amazing capture - love the way the star trails wrap around the rock

Thanks for the magic and the road info Ian.

saweet stars!

Hi Ian,
Great placement of the formation and well thought out placing the trails in between the opening. Very nice job on the painting also!