I made a few sunset shots as the late day storm clouds blew past, as I was setting up for night shooting.
Dramatic Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/80s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.
The clouds in the sky were moving and changing quickly as they blew from northwest to southeast.
English Valley Sunset Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 64, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO Color Efex Pro 4.
Just as the sun was setting, the sky to the northwest was clearing rapidly and we hoped that the clouds would clear out completely, as the weather forecast predicted, for our night images.
I used a few of my images to make a very short time-lapse movie, which can be seen here SE Colorado Sunset Sky.
We made final checks of our cameras, remote shutter release programs and put rain covers in place (there was still a slight chance of overnight rain), then hiked back to our vehicles.
Early the next morning we retrieved our cameras, then went to another location for sunrise photographs. Upon returning home, I processed the night images and this is the final product.
Star trails with moonlight landscape. A composite of 45 4 minute night exposures with the foreground illuminated by moonlight. Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 24mm, f/5.6, ISO 400. Edited in Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and DxO Nik modules.
Normally, a dark sky is preferred for star photography, but there was a bright moon this night. Our cameras were programed for 4 minute exposures, during the interval when the landscape would be illuminated by moonlight. The light on the landscape and shadows changed throughout the shooting interval, with some images looking dull and other images looking almost like they were lighted by golden hour sunlight. I chose one of the images with what I considered the most attractive foreground light to make make this final composite of 45 images.
We returned to our vehicles, after our hike up to a saddle in a volcanic dike, to have dinner and prepare for sunset and set up for night photography. The weather was threatening with heavy clouds being blown in by strong winds from the northwest.
Late Day Storm iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
I’ve always liked the way the light changes just before a storm. We were a little concerned about the prospects for sunset and night photography, but the weather report showed decreasing chances of rain as the evening progressed and only a slight chance of overnight rain.
English Valley Campsite iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The sky was mostly covered with thick clouds in all directions.
English Valley Campsite iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
After a modest dinner, we gathered our gear and hiked up onto the volcanic ridge to the south and picked our spots for sunset and night images. We used applications on our iPhones to determine when the moon would rise and set, so we that we could program our remote shutter releases to shoot in that time interval. We also knew where the moon would be in the sky, so we could decide which direction we wanted to shoot to take best advantage of the moon for lighting the landscape.
Night shooting setup iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
One can see that the cloud cover is still heavy, but it seems to be clearing, with the clouds blowing to the southeast.
Cloudy sky. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
The image above is to the south of my selected location.
Sunset sky view. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
Looking back to the northwest from my position, the clouds are much thinner now. Our vehicles are just visible in the center left of this image.
Anchored leg of tripod for extended night shooting. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe Lightroom and DxO modules.
After a few sunset images, I finalized my night composition and made sure the tripod was stable and added a few rocks around one leg for additional security. One can see that the standing room is tight and requires care in moving around here.
That’s all for now. I will have the sunset and night image results in the next post.
After dinner my son and I hiked back up the volcanic ridge to the south of our campsite to set up for night photography.
I picked my view point, looking easterly from the ridge, making a few late day images and picking a final composition for the star photographs.
English Valley Sunset, Nikon D850, Nikon 14-24mm @ 16mm (before crop), f/11, 1/25s, ISO 64
The moon was up and would not set until sometime after midnight. We did not want the moonlight to interfere with the dark sky photos, so we set our remote timers to begin shooting for sometime after the moonset.
After getting our final compositions, making sure our tripods were stable, securing our focus rings with gaffer tape, programing remotes, installing rain covers (there was a slight possibility of rain), we started the remote timers and retired to our vehicles for the night, returning in the early morning prior to sunrise to retrieve our cameras, hoping we had suitable images for star trails.
Here is my final product from all of this effort:
English Valley Star Trails. A composite of 99 30s exposures plus one late day shot for the foreground.
Much better images can be seen on Flickr by clicking on the images.
A few years ago after a week of business in a London office, I stayed over the weekend to photograph a few of the city scenes. London is a great city with much history, centuries old buildings and modern architecture. There are wonderful museums, which take much time to completely enjoy.
I had no firm plans for what to see, but my wife and I had spent a week+ here a few years prior, so I had enough of a conception of the area to just wander about and I was familiar with the subway system.
I was there just a few days after a major riot in one area of the city. So I knew an area to avoid, at least. The taxi driver that brought me from the airport to my hotel was quiet talkative and condemning of the rioting.
As usual in a large city, there were lots of local people and tourist out and about on Saturday. As I was photographing sights along the Thames, a couple of Japanese men stoped near me. The older one had a Nikon camera, one of the newest D series professional models, and a bulbous, wide-angle prime lens. I only had my consumer model Nikon D90. The older man did not speak English, speaking to me in Japanese, emphasizing his camera and lens, via his motions. The younger man, his son, translated for his dad. I was complementary about his camera gear, asking humorously, if he wanted to trade with me, offering to include my tripod, since he did not have one with him. Of course, he scoffed, in Japanese, at that notion. Anyway, I guess that I did not look like a typical tourist to the older man, with my photo vest and tripod, and I think that impression led him to speak to me. So if you want to attract attention while traveling, carry camera gear, not a just point and shoot or camera phone.
Earning a few hard earned coins in the sand along the Thames in London.
At one place along the Thames, where the river bank was very sandy, there were local artists creating sand sculptures with tip containers on prominent display. The observers showed their appreciation of the artists’ work by tossing coins at the tip containers. It looks like very few tossed coins hit the intended target, but one artist had a good idea with a blanket or tarp under the target to make it easier to find the coins that missed the target.
I wanted to get down to the Thames bank to walk along it, but I was concerned about the local tides. It appeared to be low tide now, but there were limited access points from the tidal wall along the bank and I did not want to get trapped by a rising tide.
At a quiet interval along the river walk, I found a young lady sitting on steps that went down to the river bank. I stopped to ask her about the local tides. She did not have any knowledge of the tide schedule, but she said her boyfriend probably knew, as she pointed out a young man walking along the bank. She also told me that her boyfriend did volunteer archaeological work along the river bank and had found an old cannon and numerous minor objects.
I went down to the bank and approached the young man, explaining why I was there. He did not know the tidal schedule, but he gave me a good reference that I could check online. I asked what he was looking for and he pulled a few small objects from his pocket that he had picked up there. The only one of those objects that I recall was a small button, that he said was from a sailors uniform. He also showed me a few other items along the bank, broken china and clay tobacco pipes cemented together in the river sediment. He said it was not uncommon to find an occasional Roman coin.
I thanked him for his information, decided to take a chance and continued walking along the bank. More aware of the treasures that might be lying around, I scanned the bank as I walked along, not finding anything, other than broken recent China dishes, probably discarded from a local restaurant or dwelling. As I came back this way, I looked for the clay pipes, thinking I should at least get a photo, but I could not find the pipes again.
Green algae growing on timbers and hardware along the Thames River, London.
Judging by the height of the walls along the river bank, the water level must get rather high at times.
A heavy duty chain on a bank of the Thames River in London.The remnant of an old pier along the Thames River in London.
As I walked along, the scattered clouds became more organized, threatening rain, so I abandoned the river bank and began to look for a temporary shelter as a light rain began. It was past normal lunch time and I need sustenance, so I found a restaurant to shelter in, hoping the rain would pass, as I enjoyed a meal.
A modern art sculpture of a knight adjacent to a London church.London Bridge just after sunset.
After my late lunch, I continued exploring the local area along The Thames. Near the Tower Bridge, a young man told me of a place on the opposite side of the river where I could get a different view of the bridge. I walked across the bridge, following his directions, as well as I could remember them, finding a narrow passageway between buildings, going through an iron fence gate, that clanged shut behind me, into a large secluded plaza along the bank behind what appeared to be upscale apartments. I was alone there in the early evening, with only one young couple coming into the area and they did not linger long. Maybe I spooked them away. It was eerie being alone there in the dark and I had seen almost nobody along the streets I had taken to find this plaza. I could not help thinking this would be a good place for a mugging, dumping a body in the Thames, and I hastened away, perhaps not spending as much time as needed to get the best photo here.
A night view of the Tower Bridge.
I did not like the construction cranes and other industrial features that were more visible near the bridge from this vantage point, but I managed to get a muted night shot of the bridge from a different point of view than the normal tourist would see. I’m not happy with the exposure, which was difficult with this high contrast scene. The long red line in the lower right of the photo is London Bridge.
As I retreated from the plaza and approached the bridge, I stopped below it to get this shot:
Tower Bridge from below
I like this image of a portion of the bridge, since it is from a perspective not often photographed.
I continued across the bridge to the opposite bank and began my walk back to my hotel.
London Bridge’s red light and reflections in the Thames River
