On River Time ... Robert Von Mayr
Night photography fits well with my weird sleep pattern and I enjoy it greatly - arguably some of my strongest images have been made without the sun. I have long admired star trail photographs, but my bumbling attempts were far short of my hopes. I also lived in a bright sky locale (Dallas, Texas) which limited my opportunities. I sold my last 35 mm film body soon after going digital and reluctantly put star trail photos to rest. That is, until I signed up for the Grand Canyon Rafting adventure with Steve.
The most important aspect of my participation in a photo workshop is to photographically stretch myself in some new way. Since we were camping in a VERY dark sky environment, the fantastic potential for star photography literally feet away from my bed was irresistible. I bought a used Nikon manual film body that didn't require batteries to hold the shutter open (FM-2N), made a film choice for good reciprocity properties (Provia 100), bought some FILM (Gasp) and I was set for the trip.
Or so I thought - as you might be able to tell by now, preparation is important to me - but I had neglected to look up the moon phase. The first night of the trip I was about 30 minutes into a planned 4 hour exposure when the full moon popped over the inner gorge. Now I like the light of the moon and I love watching it rise, but photographically this was a setback - bright skies meant no star trails. Bummer. Enter workshop participant Dr. Jeff Johnson - and one of the other reasons that I enjoy photo workshops (the interaction with other photographers). He mentioned a tip that he had picked up from an accomplished night photographer - With the light of a full moon, a 15 minute exposure at ISO 100 and f5.6 was the proper exposure. Voila - compositions burst forth into my brain - far more than even my limited sleep pattern would allow to be captured. I tried it out and took night photos all but one night of the trip.
I was up late into the night and early in the morning tending these exposures, and that "alone time" was the most introspective and reflective of the trip. I spent it contemplating the events of the day, the feelings that I had in that place, the sound of the river, the quiet surroundings, the play of moon light on the campsite area, and the spectacle of a full sky of stars until sleep claimed my consciousness. The photographs became secondary to that - and they were spectacular! I still enjoy the simplicity of the film camera, and the anticipation of determining whether I got the proper exposure or not - waiting for the developing process - was quite high. Below are a few samples of the full moon images taken at derivatives of that magic exposure, and some full star trails that I had planned taken later in the workshop when we had some longer dark hours.
My vision speaks clearly through night photographs - I find the compositional elements are clearer. The light in the photograph helps focus the viewers attention on the subject, and the lack of light in certain areas can obscure areas that don't work well in the composition.
It's my way of showing different aspects of everyday sights or objects - most people aren't up at these times of day to enjoy these views. Having said all that as background, star trails juxtapose earthly points of reference to compliment the stars - which helps put our existence in a larger frame. Too often, Man thinks that the world revolves around his axis - these photographs for me are reminders that Man is but a small piece of the vastness of the universe. In the canyon, the moonlight causes the inner gorge walls to glow with beautiful colors. The inner gorge is too often overlooked by the rim view - since it's encased in a much larger wrapper. On the river, you don't generally see the rims at all. Night photographs here have the potential to show the average viewer a completely different view of the canyon.
The Bridge Canyon circumpolar image at the top, created by including the North star most clearly conveys the feeling of small world big universe. The second image from Deer Creek image conveys a different feeling - combining the moon and star light as well as the warm camp light which is reflected off the foreground rock to show a truly different mood of the canyon in the hours when most are sleeping. The star trails were aligned in this image to draw attention to the center peak - which I expected to be lit by the moon. The calm water reflections and camp light warmth were unplanned bonuses.
Comment
There is still some wilderness to explore in photography. Space was the great frontier some years ago. The shot from space by one of our astronauts is still a classic. The other frontier, and one that is still more unknown and being explored photographically as well as scientifically is our oceans.
I've always liked the challenge and adventure that went with star trial photography for the simple reason that it was less scientific and more fun. It's the Forrest Gump box of chocolates thing ......... you never know what you're gonna get!
All of us are looking for the seldom seen or the something different approach no matter what the subject. Photo editors too! This is just the ticket. Every exposure is a different look. Yes there are formulas and equations to consider, or as Robert found out, there is my approach which states "you open a shutter and takes your chances." With the advent of digital SLR cameras, most of us stopped doing long exposure photography due to noise and battery issues inherent in the digital process. Robert shows us that this might be a mistake.
On this expedition, Robert brought a film camera to do his star trails, I brought my Hassleblad X-Pan film body to do panoramas. I'm hoping we both came away with something different and exciting. He certainly did!
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