The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

The year did not start too great. I had a flight booked for Hawaii to photograph the new lava ocean entry, but it dried out in the last days of 2011, so I cancelled that trip. I planned some winter photography instead, but I suddenly lost all mobility in one shoulder – making it difficult even to get dressed by myself. However, in the end, it was a good year during which I visited varied National Parks with extremes of weather, and captured a number of fleeting natural moments in the sky, before concluding the year with many locations in Asia.

In March, I traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska to photograph the Aurora. For my first attempt at capturing this magical and elusive phenomenon, I got lucky. We had great weather with several clear nights and great sky activity along the Steese Highway and the South Denali Viewpoint. However, because of the remoteness of the location, I like this image, taken over the Eastern boundary of Gates of the Arctic National Park.

We then drove the Dalton Highway beyond the Polar Circle to the beginning of the North Slope, which was an adventure in itself, amidst temperatures down to -30F during daytime past the notorious Atigun Pass.

At the beginning of May, I returned to Yosemite for a once-in a year opportunity. This time equipped with a rain deflector, I was at least able to photograph the moonbows (rainbows created in the mist of the waterfalls by the light of the moon) at close range. You’d think that Yosemite in May is warm, but standing in the extremely wet spray of the snow-melt water, I barely escaped hypothermia.

A few weeks later, I traveled to much drier West Texas to photograph a much rarer event, the solar eclipse of May 20 which was annular. I chose to travel that far destination because the eclipse would occur there close to sunset, with the landmark El Capitan providing an interesting silhouette.

I then re-visited the nearby desert National Parks. It was already hot in Big Bend – where I spent more time along the Rio Grande than in previous visits. Temperatures rose above 110 F.

Much closer to home, Pinnacles National Monument also gets fairly warm (temperatures above 100F are frequent). I normally prefer to visit in colder seasons, but I did a summer visit to complete my seasonal coverage, in anticipation of the Monument becoming Pinnacles National Park. It almost did not happen, as the bill would have expired at the end of the year, however the US Senate did approve it on a Sunday Dec 31st session !

In September, I embarked on a wide-ranging road trip thought the National Parks of the Colorado Plateau. I revisited many parks with the goal of creating night landscape images which were not possible even half a decade ago, enjoying the challenges raised by changing moon phases from the new moon to almost full moon. The half-night that I spent at the mystical False Kiva, from sunset to moonset was particularly memorable.

On that same trip, I also looked for fall colors in unexpected places, and at least found a way to set up foot into the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park, an area that I had planned to visit for a long time, but where my (relatively) fuel-efficient car was a definitive limitation. This left me wanting to see more of the remote areas of the park, for which a quick fix was to take an overflight near sunset time. I particularly enjoyed seeing from the air places to which I have hiked before, such as Chessler Park.

In late October, I had the pleasure of leading a Vietnam Photo Tour which managed to visit in 11 days an incredible variety of sites in South, Central, and North Vietnam. Thanks to our participants for making this tour a success, and to my co-leader Phuoc Babcock for putting forward first rate logistics, with the very finest hotels, restaurants, and transportation available in Vietnam. A great time was had by all.

After the tour, I explored Taiwan by myself for a week. I returned to Vietnam during the winter break so that my children could discover the country of their ancestors and meet with their extended family.

DAY 6: The day started in Hoi An with a nice sunrise over the river, caught just a few minutes walk from our riverfront hotel.

After breakfast, we boarded a small boat to observe the river life.

After navigating a narrow river channel, we came to the small pier of the Cam Kim Village.

We walked into the village, entering two homes uninvited – no invitation nor previous acquaintance was required ! – after which we enjoyed a conversation using our guide as a translator.

On the way back to Hoi An, we got a second chance to photograph fishermen casting their nets, as after spotting them on the river, our guide asked them to repeat this immemorial gesture for us.

We had a bit of time for a last walk in Hoi An, and for some participants to collect their custom-made garments from the famed Hoi An tailors – assisted by tour director Phuoc who did double-duty as a shopping consultant.

After lunch in Da Nang, we photographed coracle boats on a beach on the Da Nang Bay, as a storm was brewing.

The drive between Da Nang and Hue is known as one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world, culminating at the Hai Van Pass, however, we stopped only shortly at the summit since it was in the clouds.

As we arrived in Lang Co, the rain stopped, and although the sun did not appear, we enjoyed dramatic clouds as we photographed the activity of fishermen in late afternoon.

DAY 7: From our beachfront cottages in Lang Co, it was just a matter of walking down a few steps to the sandy beach for sunrise.

We then photographed checked out fishermen’s activities.

A drive on a local road on the lagoon side provided with more photography opportunities.

Before leaving Lang Co, we took a short walk into the authentic village which hasn’t been touched by tourism yet.

As we got on the road to Hue, it started to rain heavily.

Instead of visiting the Hue Citadel in the rain, the participants opted for a photo sharing session which we held in the bar of the Saigon Morin Hotel, while enjoying drinks.

Part 3 of 5: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

I wish everyone a year 2013 full of happiness, health, and success. My sincere thanks for your continuing readership and interest in my photography.

11PM Dec 31, 2012. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

DAY 4: The previous evening, we saw some Saigon landmarks. In the early morning, we saw a more authentic Saigon by walking in narrow streets, checking out the so-called old Saigon market (a street market), and then the Ben Thanh market before proceeding to the airport.

After landing in Da Nang, the pace changed. We climbed steep stairs on Thuy Son, the largest of the five “Marble Mountains” which consist of five marble hills, each said to represent one of the five elements of the universe. Many sanctuaries dot the hill. We first paid our respects at the Linh Ung pagoda.

After exploring two smaller grottos, we made our way through lush vegetation towards the main cave.

The highlight of the Marble Mountains is the huge Huyen Khong cave, one of the most beautiful Buddhist caves in all of Asia.

We drove to the ancient town of Hoi An, and had a bit of free time to explore the streets before dinner.

Our stay was timed to coincide with the Lantern Festival, when the Old Quarter turns off its street lamps and fluorescent lights, leaving its streets bathed in the warm glow of paper lanterns. After dinner, we walked towards the landmark Japanese Bridge, which was teaming with activity.

We stayed late for night photography until the streets were almost empty.

DAY 5: The next morning, there was a bit of free time before breakfast for checking out the market, just a few blocks from our hotel.

We then headed to My Son to explore the ruins of the vanished Champa Kingdom that ruled over South and Central Vietnam until the 17th century, arriving before all except one tour bus.

Back to Hoi An, we toured a paper lantern and silk workshop where we saw all the stages of silk production, from raising cocoons to embroidery.

After lunchtime, we spent the hottest hours of the day inside for a session where we reviewed images from last night’s session and shared tips to get ready for the next one. We then followed our outstanding local guide Cong for an old quarter town walking tour. We started with the Quan Cong temple.

After another temple visit, we obtained special access to a high vantage point in a private house from which we got a good view of the town’s tile rooftops.

The walking tour concluded inside the Quan Thang house, one of the finest historic houses in town, which is still inhabited.

We then heading towards the riverfront, where we photographed the moon rising at dusk before heading to dinner when it got dark.

Afterwards, we welcomed a second chance to photograph the Lantern Festival activities.

Part 2 of 5: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Since I am currently in Vietnam for the holidays, that’s as good a time as any to start a series of postings about the 2012 Vietnam photo tour. Those postings will illustrate all the sites that we visited during the tour, using images I took during the tour, with the goal of providing past participants precise location information, and prospective participants a good idea of the locations covered.

Let me start that by thanking our photography participants Alan, Barry, Faye, Kendra, Mark, Ron, Vicci, as well as non-photographers Barbara, Deborah, Guity, Fahemeh, Kim-Quyen, and Sally, for making the tour a success. I enjoyed your company. It was a pleasure to work with such fine photographers and people.

DAY 1: we attended the noon ceremony in the Great Cao Dai Temple (also called Cao Dai Holy See) in Tay Ninh to learn about this home-brewed syncretic religion.

Upon return to Ho Chi Minh City, we visited the atmospheric Jade Emperor Pagoda in late afternoon.

DAY 2: In the morning, we visited the Thien Hau Pagoda in Cholon.

We entered the watery world of the Mekong Delta with a ride on the Mekong from Ben Tre and then on a sampan in a narrow canal of Phoenix Island

On the way, we stopped at a family-run facility where coconut candy is made and wrapped by hand.

The day ended with a sunset over flooded rice fields, and then a river on the way to Can Tho.

DAY 3: We were in position on a bridge before sunrise to capture a distant view of the Cai Rang floating market in Can Tho.

Afterwards, we got in our own boat to explore the floating market from the water, even boarding one of the merchant boats.

We left the boat and we photographed inside the nearby Cai Rang market.

At the highway lunch stop, we sampled some interesting foods were. Upon returning to the Majestic Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, there was a choice between a technical photography presentation or free time in the afternoon.

In the evening, we took in a panoramic view of Saigon and its notorious traffic from the terrace of the Rex hotel and from the plaza in front of the People’s committee building (former city hall).

Part 1 of 5: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

During the last two weeks of September, many photographers travel to Colorado to catch the fall foliage the state is deservedly known for. They congregate mostly in places such as the San Juan Mountains or Rocky Mountains National Park. I was in Colorado too, however I was looking in other places, part of my quest to photograph each of the National Parks in different seasons.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

On the canyon rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison, color is mostly provided by scrub and gambal oak, both low growing shrubs. All the trees visible on the rim are conifers, however looking down the canyon revealed a few deciduous trees on the slopes and along the river which formed dots of color. As it dropped in elevation, there was more dense color along the seldom visited East Portal road than anywhere else in the park, including a few sizeable clusters of aspen.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

The Great Sand Dunes themselves are devoid of trees. One of the factors that make those dunes unique is the presence of a creek at their foot. Medano Creek is dry in the fall, but its flow in the spring and summer is enough to sustain a riparian environment with cottonwoods that turn golden in late September.

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde wasn’t a place I expected to find fall color. I remembered that due to high elevation, the ruins which form the main attraction of the park are surrounded by conifers. However the mesas and gently slopping canyons at lower elevations, from the park entrance to Far View, are covered with shrubs. They unexpectedly turned the whole landscape crimson towards the end of September, almost like Alaska or New England hillsides.

The third objective of my September trip was to create some seasonal images (first was night photography, second was further explorations of Canyonlands). I found it satisfying to make my own discoveries rather than photographing vast expenses of color in places which are well known for them.

Canyonlands National Park is divided into three districts of distinct character by the Green and Colorado rivers: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze. Even at the most developed district, Island in the Sky, no water is available outside of the visitor center. The most primitive district is the Maze. Since I had not visited it before, one of the main goals of this trip was to remedy this situation, as I endeavor to visit each distinct area of each National Park.

Driving into the Maze requires a high-clearance, four-wheel drive vehicle. Not any vehicle: most SUVs won’t make it without damage. Local favorites seem to be older Toyota Land Cruisers (with lift and special tires) and Jeep Rubicon/Wranglers. The most remote road-side location in the Maze, the Doll House, requires 9 hours of driving from Moab – only 2 hours less than from Los Angeles to Moab – although it is only 35 miles as the crow flies. There are no roads within the park, nor bridges that directly link the three districts, so you have to go around the park. Once you are inside the park, you have to contend with some extremely difficult four-wheel drive roads, where driving over rocks is barely faster than walking. It’s not a good place for an inexperienced four-wheel drive driver to travel solo. A tow-truck rescue costs thousands of dollars.

Fortunately, there is a shortcut. Instead of riding a bumpy road all day, you can access the Doll House by the river. Floating down the Colorado River down to its confluence with the Green River is fairly popular, however most paddlers prefer to get a ride upstream. Two companies which provide such a service are: Tag (which I used. Cost: $250) and Tex. The boats which pick up padders can also drop off and pick up backpackers.

I did not want to drive to the Canyonlands Visitor visitor center (one hour away) just to get a wilderness permit, but although the rangers at Arches were not aware of that, the owner of Tag told me that I could get one at the headquarters on the outskirts of Moab (2282 Resource Boulevard). After photographing at sunrise in Arches National Park, I got there at opening time (8am), paid the helfty $30 fee, and was on my way. For people with a vehicle, there are only three campsite sites at the Doll House, which are often claimed, but as a backpacker there were little restrictions over where I could sleep.

The ride on the Colorado River from Potash to the Confluence takes only about two hours and half. Besides the interesting river-level views, it is quite a thrill. The specialty boat, propelled by jet, speeds over 30 mph on calm waters. It needs to make sharp turns, not only to follow the meandering river, but also to avoid sand bars, during which it leans dramatically. All the talk on board was about an accident that occurred a week before my trip, when a jet boat struck a sand bar resulting in injuries to eight people, the first accident of that type in Canyonlands.

The boat dropped me off at Spanish Bottom, shortly after the Confluence. The well-established trail to the Doll House is only slightly more than a mile, but it gains a thousand feet of elevation from the river, and I was carrying a fair amount of gear (including two full-size tripods) and a gallon of water. Guides that I met at the Spanish Bottom thought that this not may be enough, and generously left a water jug for me. I eventually didn’t need it, probably because after the breeze from the jetboat speed, the September heat felt so oppressive that instead of hiking the trail to the Doll House in mid-day heat, I took a nap to wait for it to be in the shade.

I arrived at the Doll House in the afternoon. It was beautiful and I appreciated the feeling of isolation, especially at night where no artificial light was visible.

As it reminded me of Chessler Park in the Needles district, with its whimsical brightly colored spires encircling a meadow-like flat, I wished I had more time to explore the area further, in particular the area called the Maze, which gave its name to the whole district. However when I made the booking for my trip with Tag-a-long, there was some miscommunication, as only two people in the company would have been able to arrange my custom itinerary properly. I got to spent only one night there, since there were no pick-ups the next days. Besides wandering the Doll House, I had time only to check out the trail to Behive Arch, the Surprise Valley overlook (first image) and an ancient granary.

I plan to return – maybe even next year – with a proper vehicle.

More images of Canyonlands National Park
More images of Maze District

This is a review of the Nikon 14-24 f/2.8 lens from the point of view of a Canon user. However, Nikon users will find the sections about filters and focus shift of interest as well.

Canon has many great lens offerings, but their area of weakness has long been the wide-angles. Both the two Canon wide angle zooms deliver unimpressive performance unless stopped down at least two stops, and even though the corners are significantly trailing in sharpness compared to central areas.

On the other hand, the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED is considered by many as the best wide-angle zoom ever made. As I was looking for an ultra-wide angle lens that I could use wide open for night photography, I looked at the 14-24. It is an expensive lens (currently $2000 at Amazon), fraught with several drawbacks, but consider that the Canon 14mm/2.8 costs more, and in those comparisons was clearly inferior, and suddenly it becomes a reasonable proposition.

A bulky lens

The 14-24 is quite big and heavy. It weights a bit over two pounds (969g), has a front diameter and length of about 5″. The front element is curved like a fish-eye lens – although this is a rectilinear lens, making it quite exposed, and rendering the use of filters difficult (more on that later). It looks like Nikon set out to design an exceptional wide-angle lens (they succeeded) with a no-compromise design. Canon users will notice that both infinity focus and longest focal length are on the left, whereas on Canon lenses they are on the right. Here a picture of the Canon 16-35 and the Nikon 14-24 side by side. Notice the size difference of the lens caps !

A great optical performer

The good news is that in my own testing, as expected, the 14-24 outperformed the Canon 16-35/f2.8 II. Here is one image example. Canon 16-35 on top, Nikon 14-24 at the bottom, both 16mm, f/2.8. Note better correcting of vignetting with the Nikon.

Here an actual pixels crop from the left end of the skyline. Note how much sharper the Nikon is.

To guard against sample-to-sample variation – always a problem as my previous testing has shown -, I tested two samples of each lens. Needless to say, I kept sample B. Here are the Imatest results (the most reliable way to measure lens performance, see this post for an explanation of numbers and methodology). Note that the results stopped down underestimate the real performance of the 14-24 because I didn’t refocus the lens (more on this later). In each graph, is Canon on top row, Nikon on bottom row (marked as “50mm” by software because no EXIF data is available to the Canon body from the Nikon lens).

Flare resistance of the 14-24 is excellent. Here is an example with the sun in the frame:

Focus shift

Extracting the absolute best performance from the 14-24 is tricky because this lens suffers from “focus shift”, which means that as you stop down the lens, the focus point changes slightly. So if you are going to shoot at f/5.6, you should focus the lens at f/5.6 because if you focus at f/2.8, once you stop down to f/5.6, the lens will be ever slightly out of focus. Focusing at f/5.6 is more difficult than at f/2.8 because the image is dimmer and the DOF is larger (making the in-focus/out-of-focus transition more difficult to see), but at 100% liveview on the 5D mark 3 it is possible – The 5D mark 2 made it even easier. On the other hand, liveview on the D800 leaves much to be desired. From what I’ve seen so far, focus shift is a subtle effect – the shift is even different in the center area and the corners – but one can be readily observed by pixel-peeping or measuring resolution targets. However, I’ve read somewhere the claim that it can cut effective resolution in half in some circumstances. From an optical point of view, it is a quite curious effect, so I may elaborate on it in a future post. Fortunately, I bought the lens primarily for night photography, when I would be using it wide open all the time, so it hasn’t been a real issue for me. I focus the lens at infinity, wide-open, while there is still enough light, and tape the focus ring.

Filters

The 14-24 doesn’t come with filter threads, and the huge curved front element makes it more difficult to use them. However, there are a few solutions developed by ingenious small manufacturers. They are all quite expensive and bulky, but they work.

• Lee filters was the first to introduce a custom holder and filters specifically for this lens, the SW150 Filter Holder Kit based on 150mm square filters. It works fine for density filters (including grads), but doesn’t include a polarizing filter. Several photographers use a square polarizing filter from Cavision which needs custom fitting.
• Lucroit, in collaboration with Hi-Tech, the long-standing Lee competitor, has created a 165mm square filter modular system which can be used on almost any lens. Here’s the Lucroit kit for the 14-24.
• If you want to use circular, screw-on filters (including ND and polarizer), the most compact and least expensive solution is the Fotodiox system. The filter diameter is a large 145mm. It still adds considerable bulk: this will not fit in any camera bag ! Being all metal, it also weights almost a pound, making the 14-24 as heavy as a 70-200/2.8, and equally front-heavy. On the upside, this system provides additional protection for the lens and includes a solid metal screw-on cap. The Fotodiox system isn’t designed for a square filter, but you could hand-hold or tape one in front of it (if you tried to do so on the bare lens, this wouldn’t work as some light would get on the filter from behind because of the petal hood).

You can see below how bulky the Fotodiox system is, and how large a 145mm lens cap is compared to a 82mm lens cap: 82mm isn’t small (complaints were heard when Canon increased the 16-35/2.8 filter size from 77mm), yet it looks puny in comparison.

Using a Nikon G lens on Canon

Canon re-designed their lens mount from scratch in 1987 with the EOS system. As a result, it has two favorable characteristics: the shortest flange focal distance (distance between the mounting metal ring and the image plane) as well as the largest diameter of any of the major SLR systems. This makes it possible to use adapters to mount other brand’s lenses on Canon EOS, while the reverse is not possible.

In older Nikon lenses, the aperture is controlled by a mechanical ring. Inexpensive adapters work well for them. The 14-24 is a “G” lens without an aperture ring. The aperture is set by the camera body through the lens mount, so you need an additional lever to control the aperture, otherwise the lens would stay wide-open. Photographer Mark Welsh designed the first such adapter, which after a few iterations, was eventually manufactured by Novoflex. It is expensive, but it is precision-made, and the fit is perfect. The instructions suggest that you remove the lens weatherproofing ring, but this isn’t necessary. It just makes the operation of the aperture lever smoother. With the lens weatherproofing ring in place, fine control of the lever to 1/3 of stop is still possible, but it requires more force. Here’s a picture of the 12-24 with the adapter:

On a Canon body, you loose autofocus, which in itself is no big deal, but you need to remember to focus the lens. Mark Welsh sells on his site a version of the adapter with a chip that enables AF-confirmation. The problem is that the chip is merely glued to the adapter, and mine fell off (you can still see the glue marks in the picture above). Metering works normally in Aperture Priority and Manual modes, except that maybe because evaluative metering lacks information, it tends to be a bit erratic, resulting in frequent overexposure of up to +1 f-stop – easy enough to correct if you can reshoot. The difference in operation is that when you stop down the lens, it is actually stopped down all the time, whereas a normal lens stops down only at the time of exposure. It’s kind of like having the DOF preview button pressed permanently. Older PC and tilt-shift lenses with no aperture coupling (prior to the Canon TSE lenses for EOS) had to be operated this way. You set the aperture wide-open to compose and get initial focus, then stop down and refine focus and aperture with Live View. That workflow is pretty effective on a tripod, although a bit slow, but doesn’t work well for hand-held shooting. In fact, this workflow may be the best way of extracting maximum resolution from the 14-24 even for Nikon users, because of “focus shift” as described above.

To see some images made with the 14-24 mounted on a Canon EOS 5D mark 3, check my previous blog entry Southwest tour under changing moon phases.

During the two last weeks of September, I took a road trip in the Southwest. One of my goals was to create landscape photographs by night in the National Parks. It was productive, but tiring. In the days of film, sensitivity was too low for stars (unless you wanted trails, which I am not that interested in), so you got to sleep between dusk and dawn. Not anymore with high-ISO abilities of recent digital cameras and lenses, which let you photograph in almost total darkness ! I started my trip under a new moon, and finished it with a full moon. I wanted images where the landforms would be clearly visible, instead of just being silhouettes against the starry sky. This involved a range of strategies depending on the phase of the moon that I’ll illustrate with a dozen of images in chronological order. Let’s take a quick tour of the Southwest National Parks by night.

I started the project with the Bristlecone Pine trees of Great Basin National Park. Since they are the oldest living things, I liked the idea of photographing them with the ancient light of stars. Great Basin is far from major population centers, so its skies are exceptionally dark. However, I wasn’t off to the best start for this project. As I headed by nightfall up the 1-hour trail to the grove, I was met halfway by a team of filmmakers/photographers who were hiking down. It turned out that they had set time-lapse sequences for a NPS-funded project. They asked me not to disturb them with a headlamp. The trail was dark, since there was no moon. I agreed to come back only in the later part of the night, when their sequences would be finished. I got up before 3am, but it takes a long time to find a subject in the dark, then refine your images. By the time I was done composing this photograph, the sky was already starting to lighten, and the Milky Way was long gone. Since my dark time was so short, instead of deploying my own lights, I used the light of a lantern the team had placed more than a hundred yards away. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 15s ISO 6400 (more on this lens in the next blog post).

The next night, I resumed photographing Bristlecone Pine trees, but this time in Bryce Canyon National Park. The moonless night is the best for letting the Milky Way and stars shine brightly, but the landscape is usually too dark. However, for this shot, there was a bit of light pollution, from distant artificial light sources, that was enough to cast a bit of light on the canyon. Since this was enough to give a sense of place, I chose to let the tree be seen as silhouette rather than lighting it. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 6400

In Capitol Reef National Park, I photographed the landmark Castle. The visitor center lights were enough to accent the opposite cliffs, but not the more distant Castle, so I lighted the sizeable rock formation using a very bright (1000+ lumens) LED torch that was held by a tripod and clamp, as I photographed from a point of view hundreds of yards away to create some cross-lighting. Canon 5Dmk3, 24/1.4, f/1.4 20s ISO 3200

Looking up at the depth of the cosmos through Double Arches in Arches National Park was a magic experience. I lit the arch at a much closer distance. I could have easily illuminated it very brightly with the LED torch, but I used instead a 200 lumens camping lantern because it looked more natural to lit it just enough to bring out some detail, but not overwhelm the stars. I adjusted the illumination by varying the position of the lantern until it felt right, rather than relying on unpredictable and difficult-to-reproduce light painting. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, main frame f/2.8 30s ISO 6400. Although not strictly necessary, I blended it in a secondary frame exposed at 4min ISO 800 to reduce noise in the arch for a higher-quality print

The Maze District of Canyonlands National Parks (more in a future blog post) is one of the most remote areas in the continental US. It gets seriously dark there. The dim light on the rock formations of the Dollhouse is natural. It came from a combination of thin 1st quarter crescent moon, which was appearing for the first time since the beginning of my trip, and residual dusk glow. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 6400

One day made quite a difference, as the moon was already high in the sky when I photographed Skyline Arch in Arches National Park the next day, shortly after sunset. There was a measure of balance, as it illuminated the whole landscape, but still left many stars visible. During the first quarter, the moon is present only during the first part of the night. This leaves you with options to photograph either a moonlit landscape or a dark landscape with very bright stars, after moonset. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 6400

After making the previous image, I drove to the Devil’s Garden trailhead. The parking lot is usually full during the day, and the trail packed -as it is only 1.5 miles RT and flat. It was rewarding to see no nobody else there as I hiked to Landscape Arch, the longest natural arch in the world, 290 feet. The day was hot, but the temperature was perfect by night for hiking in T-shirt. I turned of my light to revel in the experience. Although the moon had set, the faint light of the stars was enough to follow the well-maintained wide trail – which felt adventurous to follow in those conditions – and to make out the rock formations. It was too dim to reveal any details in the arch, so I used again the camping lantern to light the span in a subtle way while keeping the Milky Way the brightest object in the photograph. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 6400 & 4min ISO 800

The next day, I hiked to the False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park, just in time to get there shortly before sunset. A Kiva refers in Hopi to a circular structure built by Pueblo Indians for religious purposes. It is a “False Kiva” because excavation had shown that the structure was used for daily activities rather than rituals. Yet, the extraordinary setting inside an isolated alcove hidden in a cliff confers to the site a spiritual atmosphere. The improbable and adventurous trail leading to the location adds to the mystique. Per NPS directives stating that “Class II site locations may only be disclosed to the public when visitors request the information by site name, photograph or description .. when visitors receive locational information about Class II sites, they must also be instructed in how to behave when visiting the sites”, the location is not publicized, however it is known to many photographers through the work of Tom Till and the description provided by Laurent Martres in “Photographing the Southwest”. A helpful ranger at the Island in the Sky Visitor Center provided me with precise directions from the Alcove Spring trailhead near Upheaval Dome, then wrote my name in a register. After sunset, only few stars where visible when I photographed the False Kiva illuminated by the high moon. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 15s ISO 400 & 20s ISO 1600

I enjoyed the near-absolute silence and stillness of the sheltered alcove, except when I got out of it to eat my dinner. A few hours later, the moon got lower in the sky and dimmer. Interestingly, although this is not visible to the human eye, just like the sun, its light also became warmer. I chose the moment just before it was going to disappear behind the cliff to create this second image. Like for the first one, it is lit only by the moon. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 1600

One more hour, and the moon had set. I used my hiking headlamp to illuminate indirectly the scene, by bouncing the light against a side of the alcove. I left the False Kiva around 2.45am. In spite of the dark night, I lost the social trail only a couple of times, as it was well cairned, getting to the car at 3.45am. Canon 5Dmk3, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8 30s ISO 6400 & 15min ISO 400

At Great Sand Dunes National Park, the moon was already half-full. At this point, a night photograph is fairly similar to a full-day photograph, except that stars are sill visible in the sky – I underexposed slightly to retain the sense of darkness. The night before, I had skipped night photography as the sky was totally overcast, so there were no stars to give a sense of night. After sunset, the sky, which had been cloudy, began to clear, so I proceeded to hike up the dunes at 10pm to photograph, enjoying the vastness and solitude. Canon 5Dmk3, 24/1.4, f/2.0 15s ISO 1600

At Grand Canyon National Park, the moon was more than half-full. Although this is great for a stroll, normally this is my least favorite circumstance for night photography, as with a proper exposure, the images look almost like daytime, with only a bit of mystery added. However, the presence of the Desert View Watchtower added interest. As the building was illuminated, it stood out against the darker landscape, its lights actually providing the nocturne impression. At sunset, there was a crowd which shocked me, as it had been a decade and half since I last visited the South Rim. I could not even find a suitable spot to photograph on the rim and had to scramble down the canyon a bit. Everybody had vanished an hour later, by the time the tower stood out the best against the landscape. Canon 5Dmk3, 24 TSE, f/4.0 30s ISO 800

During those two weeks, I photographed at many National Parks locations, some quite obscure, some bustling with visitors by day. Yet, in the later case, the solitude and quiet afforded by the night had restored some of the sense of awe and wonder that I experienced there during my initial visits, some decades ago. I hope to have conveyed a bit of that mystery through those photographs, and I hope that they will inspire you to venture and explore nights in wild places for yourself.

Summer 2012 issue of Black Card Mag (the luxury lifestyle magazine for holders of the exclusive credit cards for the 1%) opened with a 24-page travel feature about the US National Parks. Yellowstone, Olympic, Arches, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain, Crater Lake, Denali, Glacier, and Everglades are introduced with a brief description, not-to-miss highlight, and places to stay. The article features my images and is complemented by a short profile that you can read below.