Recently on my way home from shooting in Minneapolis, I stopped by the gateway arch in St. Louis to test out a shot I had visualized. To go along with my recent city star trails, I wanted to get a good shot of the arch with the stars trailing around it. 

Upon arriving at around 230 am, I scouted out the spot and found a safe place to park. I then snuck into the park and started scouting locations. I had to walk 3/4 of a miIe to get to the arch from where I parked. I shot from a few different spots from the shadows around the arch, but those were not good enough, I had to risk it and go right up in the light and shoot where I could easily be seen and get kicked out. So after an hour of shooting I finally found my spot right under the arch looking up. Then my battery died... :/

Something I usually always check is my battery life, but of course the time I have to walk almost a mile in the dark of a city I don't know very well, I forget and my battery dies. Well I was not going to leave without getting that shot. I walked the mile and a half back to my car to swap batteries and back out to the arch. 

I had marked my tripod leg locations to get the same exact shot and set it up and wouldn't you know some cops start rolling through the park with their search lights beaming through the woods. 

One thing I always do when I am at risk of being caught doing something illegal is make first contact. Talking to them first shows that I don't mean any harm and keeps them from assuming I am up to no good. So I waved the cop down and asked "you guys looking for me" and he replied "No but you need to get out of here unless you want to spend the night in jail". So I told him I was from out of town just driving through and getting some photos and he lowered his tone and told me the park opened at 5am. 

So this was a bummer since I had set up my shot and had not gotten more than 5 minutes of the 90 minute shot I needed. So I told the officer I would pack up and leave and sorry, I was unaware and all that jazz. Then went back over to my camera and started picking up my bag and stuff as he drove off. I saw him drive over a hill and decided that I was going to stay until I saw him come back and then grab my camera and bolt. 

So I kept a sharp eye, which was hard since it was approaching 4am and I had been up for 22 hours already. The cop never came back but right as my shot was reaching its end as the park was about to open, a few men came running through the woods with flashlights so I grabbed my gear and ran back to my car.

After all that I am happy to bring you what I believe is a one of a kind shot of the Gateway Arch at night :)

So today I am going to talk about a few reasons why you should shoot the same scene in landscape and portrait. So obviously, a nice landscape scene looks great when shot wide to be used as a computer wallpaper or print, but you should also consider flipping the camera on its side and doing a double tap. 

Most of the time many of us shoot landscapes in landscape mode, I mean thats why they call it landscape mode right? Having a wide field of view can really bring a lot into a photo, but that isn't always the right way to shoot certain scenes. For aesthetic and monetary reasons.

So what if you were to shoot a scene in landscape mode and post it online and it blows up, and maybe a magazine wants to use it for their cover. Well obviously a magazine cover needs to be shot in portrait format. 

Thats just one example but if you were wanting to create a beautiful desktop background then you want to shoot in landscape mode right? Well not everyones computer sits atop a desk, more and more people are doing all of their computing on their smartphones now adays, which require a portrait mode wallpaper.

These are just two examples to consider, there are many many more reasons but I just want to challenge myself and everyone out there to consider flipping into portrait for a landscape shot or even shooting the same scene in both landscape and portrait. 

shooting wide can allow you to find more foreground interest laterally.

shooting long can allow for a more dynamic photo by adding interest at the top and bottom to compliment the subject

A couple days ago one of the Newtography associate photographers (Terry) was over here so I could clean his sensor, and we started talking about his new wide angle rokinon 14mm 2.8 lens. I was rather impressed by the lens to be honest, which surprised me. So I suggested that he come with me to shoot the next image in my star trail series that night. He was excited and we talked about locations and I showed him this spot which I had always wanted to shoot. I knew exactly the frame I wanted and he was excited to go. 

I hit Graham ( Newtography Videographer) up and told him what we were doing to see if he wanted to come and he was on board. Our leave time was approaching and Terry had to bail, but Graham and I made the 45 minute drive down to South Pittsburg to take advantage of the beautiful night sky. 

We got there and set up a few different cameras getting various time lapses, and we met a zoo of local pets, including a massive dog named Zeus. Several cats proceeded to wonder what our cameras were every time they clicked, ruining a few frames and messing up some time lapses. One cat in particular found me interesting and claimed me as its human while we were there, never leaving my lap anywhere I sat down, and jumping into my car when I prepared to leave. 

After a cold couple hours of beautiful clear skies and calm waters a barge came through and really stirred up our perfect glassy reflection. We shot for another hour to get a good amount of footage for the time lapse, then packed up and headed home. Leaving behind all of our new animal friends

I just got to these images today and was really blown away at the beautiful color of the sky and water that night. Although these star trail images take me a few hours to shoot and several more hours to put together. They are by far the most rewarding images I have ever created. I tend to get a bit spiritual when I am out under the night sky looking out into the infinite wonder and letting my imagination roam. So when I get to put together awesome images of that and see the time lapse of what our earth sees as it spins endlessly through the universe we call home. It really blows me away. 

Anyways enough getting emotional about a picture :p here is todays Pic of the Day

Hope you enjoy :)

So I have recently tried to take advantage of the nice clear early nights, before the time changes, by going out as the sun sets to find a spot to do some late evening star trails of the city. These are my favorite image to create but they also take the most work. 

A lot of years learning the moon phases, star locations throughout the year, and tedious editing procedures have gotten me to the point where I can visualize exactly what I want to capture around the city and where polaris will be at any given time of year. 

The Light pollution from the city actually helps in the case of star trails. The reason being is that when shooting star trails, I usually want to shoot during a full moon. This is because the full moon illuminates my foreground subject while also drowning out a lot of the dim stars in the sky, only leaving the brightest stars to capture the trails. 

If I was to shoot during a new moon, I could get amazing milky way shots if I am far enough away from the light pollution, but it would give me thousands and thousands of stars which would be very overwhelming if I created a star trail image with that many in the sky. This is why having a fairly empty sky due to either the city or the moon drowning out the stars helps have a more pleasant and uncluttered star trail image. 

I have been shooting many nights, to put together a series of star trail images around the city, while the conditions are optimal. This particular image caused me quiet a bit of headache due to the fact that 1/3 of the duration of this shoot, the stars were covered by some low clouds that formed right in my composition. So it took me the better part of three days to put this image together, so this time I really hope you enjoy todays image :)

Spent a good part of friday night out in the city under the stars. I had been wanting to get this shot for quiet some time, and friday night was the perfect night for it. Being in the city the light pollution was already going to drown out a lot of the stars, so I had been waiting for a night when the moon was new or it rose late in the morning hours.

For the last few months every time the circumstances were right with the moon phase, it was very cloudy. But friday was perfect. No clouds, cool night with no humidity. I finally got to go shoot polaris over the aquarium. 

I made a youtube video a couple months ago on how I decided this location, I was not able to make a youtube video while I was shooting so I guess I will have to do it again to finish out the video series. 

Here is the video and the photo for todays pic, 

Hope you enjoy :)