Night of the Dunes

One more time...

Planned this shot for a while, i used a rented 24mm f/1.4 for the
shoot Tuesday night--awesome lens BTW. This is a 2 exposure composite, i also 'nudged' the stars a bit to get the Pleiades closer to Herard (it would have been to the right of the peak)--what can i tell you, im a sucker for the Pleiades. Anyhow, Winter is my favorite time in the Dunes, though i really must figure out a way to keep my hands from freezing... A real clear sky tue night--is that a Leonid??
A vertical version at ESS (i shot two versions, vert and horiz, had to move the camera but not the tripod) which i like a bit more.
View this in a dark room for best effect!!

The Dunes at sunset

Mt Herard was glowing pretty good...

The 'Ghost Forest" just after sunset. I chose this spot for the metaphorical implications (see ESS if interested). Man that 24mm is a sharp lens--Xmas present anyone?? Thats all for now!

Man these starry night shots are just too cool looking. I bet if you cropped the light on Mt Herard pic (#3) to a pano it would look really nice. Still, well done on all of them.

That first image looks almost surreal...very nice. I need to look up on how to blend long exposure images.

Great set of images, Stan! Really like #2! Number 1 is too blue for my tastes--looks too unreal to me. Love the comp and the Leonid though!

The only suggestion I have for the first one is a slight left crop. Otherwise, that's one of the most amazing photos I have seen. Thanks for posting DuneMan!

LOVE the simple emptiness of #3. Beautiful.

Yeah, number 3 is great.Thanks for sharing them!

The #3 Mt. Herard shot is really awesome... great light, great comp.

To be brutally honest, the stars shot looks fake to me. The hard edges around the tree and mountains look like a scissor cut and paste.

Thanks Jack, no problem with the brutality, since i was dealing with an essentially dark scene the choice is either go real real dark with the fg or deal with a certain amount of the cut-n-paste look. It doesnt look as bad at full scale--part of that is the jpeg and sharpening. Also, the high ISO gives you a surreal scene to begin with--i certainly couldnt pick up that much light with my eyes! If you get a chance, check out the vertical on ESS, it was shot with slightly more ambient light so id be curious if you think its any better.

# 3 is really cool, (no pun intended). I agree with Jack on the first one. It also come across with a hard blue cast. Maybe that's what you were trying to do I don't know.

I like the ESS one better, and you got the Andromeda galaxy in there as well. Again a hard blue cast on that one as well. Although not the best time of the year to get details out of the Milky Way I think your missing a lot of detail in there.

Thanks for sharing DuneMan. I really need to get down there. One of my favorite places and I haven't been there in about 5 years.

Brian, yeah i was puzzled why i couldnt get more Milky Way details, maybe it was the higher ISO (i used 3200 for the sky) seemed to obliterate a lot of the contrast. The blue cast is intentional, cause i studied the colors hard at the scene and it looked really really blue to me--maybe its my eyes I dont understand the usual anemic brown look you usually see with the Milky Way shots--just doesnt look that way to me at night, what can i tell ya.
EDIT: hmm, after looking at the RAW files im wondering if i might have blown some of the sky detail with the lower WB, ill have to play with that.

I like #1, even though I am also seeing a bit of the "cutout" effect that Jack describes. However, I prefer your post on ESS, I think its comp combines the most interesting elements of the scene better and the pink glow makes the transition between the sky and mountains appear a bit more gradual.

+1 on #3 too. A simple yet effective comp there for sure.

Number 3 definitely.

I'm a sucker for your night images, so #1 gets my vote, but these are all wonderful. I think I prefer the comp on the E,S,&S version of #1.

+1 for #3, although the star shot is amazing and I admire the effort. There's no doubt that you'll get it perfect.

Stan, I love the stars shot.....Personally, I like the surreal effect and see it as interpetive. To me all images, and this includes landscapes, do not all have to be "as they really are" to be legitimate. Everyone has has his own way of seeing.
Joe Rogers

Brian, yeah i was puzzled why i couldnt get more Milky Way details, maybe it was the higher ISO (i used 3200 for the sky) seemed to obliterate a lot of the contrast. The blue cast is intentional, cause i studied the colors hard at the scene and it looked really really blue to me--maybe its my eyes I dont understand the usual anemic brown look you usually see with the Milky Way shots--just doesnt look that way to me at night, what can i tell ya.
EDIT: hmm, after looking at the RAW files im wondering if i might have blown some of the sky detail with the lower WB, ill have to play with that.

Here is an explanation to the phenomenon you experienced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_cell

Stan...wow... I love your work. First one's is a bit too blue around the tree ..but sky on the edges of the photograph looks great.... but I think the blue border has a lot to do with it too. Border is too distracting.. #3 like everyone said is spectacular!! AND STAN.... ESS version is so beautiful....

that first one is really, really awesome!

I love the stars shot, Stan. Not many would even attempt it, let alone pull it off the way you did.

Hey Stan, do you ever work? The first looks more "Photo Art" . . . not that there's anything wrong with that. Hard to pick a favorite.

Been tryin' a star shot at the Dunes for a while now, but have been foiled by clouds each time. I tend to prefer the shot on ESS as the foreground looks more "natural" (not as cut and pasted), I think more b/c the pink/magenta hues behind the tree seem to compliment the f/g lighting more than the blues on this post.

Eventhough the image is not completely realistic/accurate (as you pointed out, there is no way the naked eye can see all those stars/colors), it's still a cool image to look at. As Van Gogh once wrote: “It often seems to me that the night is much more alive and richly colored than the day”, but for us, it just takes a digital sensor to see what he was talking about

Great shots Stan. I do like #1, but number 3 takes the cake!

My favorite saying I have come up with lately is that "I have an artistic license, and I am not afraid to use it." Push that envelope until it pops open, Stan. I think by pushing ourselves creatively we grow as photographers and bring more of ourselves into the image. And, of course, being a color freak, I like #1. I am not a purist in the strict sense of the word when it comes to nature photography. Maybe this forum is not the place to put artistic expression over a more natural looking shot, but I applaud your effort, and I bet it will resonate more with a general audience than #3. I don't want to bring more of a discussion about "what is landscape photography art" when you have a great one going over in the Landscape forum already.

I like 1 and 3 the best. I'm always a sucker for star shots and the isolation feel that 3 gives is wonderful.

Thanks folks! Mel--thanks for that link, interesting stuff.

Hey Stan, your repost on ESS is the one!! Much better, imo.

Another nitpick... I don't think the blue border is helping the image. Just my preference though.

Stan,

I'm a little late on the feedback, but I'll echo what everyone has said. The first shot, and the one on ESS, is a truly unique shot. Your patience and your imagination has really paid off! If I had to pick, I'd also go with the one on ESS.

That first image is simply amazing! I love all the stars. Really like the subtle colors in the Mt. Herard image.