Planets Align
by Jared Atencio
I just renewed my membership for yet another year here at NPN so thought I needed to do the obligatory renewal post. I continue to be humbled, inspired, motivated, educated, and sincerely thankful for this online community.
Here is a shot from January 2012 taken in Death Valley NP. I managed to get my wife's Pathfinder stuck in a sand pit the day before (warranting one of those infamous DV tow bills you hear so much about), so this shot was a little redemption for my loss. The "star" is actually a very bright planet that was out this night (Venus or Jupiter?). Thanks as always for any comments and/or critique.
3 Shot Blend (2 for FG Focus, 1 for stars
Comments
28 commentsaF
Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI
love it
Chris
Marc, it was definitely your work from this area that sent me on this mission to find this playa. The patterns have broken down over time and are not nearly as uniform/symmetrical, but maybe they'll reform in years to come. Growing up near Great Sand Dunes NP, I have plenty of experience driving/getting stuck in sand, but I was lulled into a false sense of confidence and a VERY deep pit that came out of nowhere (near Steel Pass). Let's just say the tow truck driver knew right where to find me
In regard to Kah and Zack's question:
I knew there would be a contingent of those who would prefer a darker FG. When shooting during daylight hours, you can actually SEE your subject and this experience is usually a guide when processing the image. How many times do we see people saying that a photo, no matter how unbelievable, is EXACTLY what they saw with their own eyes (or even more fantastic than the image itself)? With night photography, I was not able to see the FG when taking this shot (about 1 hour or so after sunset), but my sensor sure could! With night photography you don't have that visual aid of actually seeing this with your own eyes, so in my opinion, there's already an inherent amount of unnaturalness or unbelievability in the photo. I know we have a tendency to assume that night shots have to be dark and that feels more [i]natural[/n] for some, but brining something that is not naturally visible to the human eye to print is already so foreign, why even try to make it "believable" or work within certain confines? What makes night photography fun for me is there is no visual experience of what we actually saw, meaning we are allowed more flexibility with artistic liberties and vision when producing the final result. Not to discount your comments, I had the same thoughts when processing, but liked the version presented here more and this was my thinking when justifying it to myself