Chasing the Night - Capturing Star Fields

Photographing the night sky has become one of the fastest growing types of photography. Using even basic equipment and a little knowledge of the night sky once can capture some fascinating objects. In recent years I have spent more and more time chasing the night photographing subjects like the Milky Way center, and few planets like Saturn and Jupiter along with a few deep sky objects like Andromeda.

Perseus Double Cluster

Most of my images fall well short of what is possible when you combine quality photographic equipment with very dark and scenic night sky areas, but they are still fun to do and what makes it most enjoyable is because it is "now" real time.

One of the most intriguing things to do when photographing the night sky is to simply point your camera toward a dark area and see what you get. Most of the time it will simply be a scattered collection of stars spread across your field of view, but sometimes you discover some interesting sky objects.

Beehive Cluster

Star field photographs are just that, a photograph of a random series of stars. What makes them intriguing is the patterns they create. Stars of course are made up of a variety of types and colors with some being red, some bluish, some yellow, and some white. The colors do have a meaning with the various tones indicating how hot they are and in some cases how large they are.

When you find clusters of them, well now you have discovered a real deep sky object. Some of the more famous ones include The Beehive Cluster, and the Perseus Double Cluster, along with Pleiades or also called the Seven Sisters. These are beautiful clusters and reveal just how amazing is the night sky.

I will not get into all the techniques involved, just wanted to write a simple post and share some of the more fascinating images I've managed to capture. More information can be found within this blog by doing a search using Night Sky as a key word.

The Ansel Adams Project

Light becomes its most surreal when a photograph is viewed in black and white. It is as though whatever it falls upon becomes wrapped within a veil of luminosity that is at once unique and familiar, yet it carries within it a vibrancy that transcends the distraction color imparts on an image.

Keith Bridgman Photography

Ansel Adams, probably the best known American Photographer of landscapes, captured the color of the American west almost exclusively in black and white. His influence travels far beyond his mastery of photographic technique and impacted the age of conservation awareness like no other person. His images stirred the imagination into action and transformed a nation who at the time of his greatest works was struggling to climb out of a great depression. His genius was second to none, his eye for detail defined modern photography, his visual influence changed a nations understanding of who it was.

I have long enjoyed black and white photography ranging all the way back to my youthful earliest days of using a very old Kodak No. 1 Brownie camera my grandparents once owned, and developing those negatives and small prints inside a closet darkroom. It was magical to watch the image transform within the chemical trays. They were nothing more than simple snap shots of my day, things like our pet dog, or the car in the driveway, or a pool of rainwater reflecting light across its surface. The foundation of my photography was laid during those days and in spite of the modern technology available today, those simple images serve to remind me of my photographic roots.

Keith Bridgman Photography 

I first learned about Ansel Adams when I was a college student, although I had seen several of his images previous to that time. His story fascinated me even then at how he transformed from taking snapshots using the same kind of Kodak No.1 Brownie camera I had also used, into one of, if not the foremost authority on landscape photography. I would sit in the library and peruse though a book containing some of his images and was mesmerized by their clarity and stark beauty never once believing or even thinking that one day I would attempt to capture images in his style.

The Ansel Adams project is simply my attempt to rekindle some creative energy by going back to the basics of photography. I could never imply that I would ever match the power and impact of his images, but to shoot in his style forces one to backtrack creatively and to see the world in a different perspective by looking at the world based on the contrast and light created by shades of gray. 

Shades of gray, it sounds so simple, yet in reality capturing the world through the eyes of black and white is more difficult than it seems, for you not only must recognize the intrinsic photographic value of a landscape, you must also look beyond the visible clutter color imparts on a scene and see it as a series of contrasts and shades. Then, for this project at least, I must visualize not only the potential, but the technique Ansel himself might have used to compose his images.

Keith Bridgman Photography

For thirty days, I will add to my collection of black and white images and explore photographically the world close to home shooting nothing except landscapes and other points of interest using the Ansel Adams style. It is perhaps is one of the most unique and challenging projects I've ever attempted, yet one where my excitement level of the potential that may develop is as high as the Sierra Mountains where Ansel created some of his most enduring images.

The S-Curve: Composition's Secret Weapon

Nature in all of its forms offers the photographer an unending array of photographic events. Capturing nature effectively can often prove to be an elusive endeavor, but we keep trying, keep pursuing the art of photography until at last we discover that one magical moment. Composition plays a vital role in being able to capture magical moments and effectively using composition to portray your vision can be influenced by some basic understandings like using one of natures secret weapons; The S-Curve.

Taken using a disposable 35mm film Camera

The S-curve in a scenic landscape serves to move the eye, to lock it into what is important. It leads the viewer toward what you the photographer wants them to see. When anchored between blocking compositional elements such as a darkened treeline or a distant ridge or even a shadowed hillside, the S-curve then becomes the most important part of the image. Those blocking elements serve to keep the eye from wandering off the page so the story line then becomes more condensed and is no longer simply a portion of what you are seeing, it becomes the main focus of why you are even looking.

S-curves can be bold and dominant, or more subtle and suggestive. Regardless, they serve to take your eye into the image. They can provide a platform upon which the remainder of the composition resides.  It is important to include them with other strong elements that compliment the reason the S-curve is there. Other building blocks serve to frame the image to isolate the importance of the curve. You the photographer must then position yourself in the most advantageous location to take advantage of the natural flow of the curve.

Light can also influence the nature of the S-curve. Used effectively, you can actually create a curve that may or may not be all that noticeable. Blended with blocking shadows and framing elements, then allowing the light to glow across the image toward the viewer is an effective way to render how S-curves tell the story.

It takes an experienced eye to see past the chaotic distractions and to focus in on what is important. Visualization is key here, where using your knowledge of how the camera captures light, you are able to generate the desired emotional balance that so effectively stops a viewer and keeps their eyes on the story you wanted to express.

Over time the process become instinctive and you feel the situation as much as you see it. You begin to look beyond the obvious and drill into the sublime to see the finished product before you ever take the shot.

When this begins to happen, you pass beyond accepting the ordinary to dwell within a realm where creating the extraordinary becomes a part of why you are a photographer. Using natures secret weapon, the S-curve, just makes life as a photographer a little bit softer.