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Watch The Perseid Meteor Shower This Week

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Photo by anttler (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
Photo by anttler (used under the CC-Attr-NC-ND license)
Every year between July and August, you can watch the Perseids meteor shower in the night sky. This year it’s supposed to peak on the night of August 13, so any night this week you should be able to see a good amount of meteors streaking across the sky. And, the Perseids is especially great this year because it occurs during a new moon, so the meteors won’t have to battle the brightness of the moon in the sky — allowing you to see MUCH more! 🙂

To increase your chances of seeing some meteors, it’s also good to get away from the light pollution of cities. You want the sky as clear and as dark as possible. [Read more…] about Watch The Perseid Meteor Shower This Week

How To Photograph The Aurora Borealis

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Wiseman, Alaska Nikon D800E /14-24 Nikkor f2.8 / 15 seconds/ ISO 3200 -- Photo by Jeff Stamer
Wiseman, Alaska Nikon D800E /14-24 Nikkor f2.8 / 15 seconds/ ISO 3200 — Photo by Jeff Stamer
Surreal, scintillating and sensuous, the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) have mesmerized humans since the dawn of time.

Unfortunately, they’re a sight few get to experience unless you happen to live in the far northern (or southern) parts of the globe. For the rest of us, seeing this awe-inspiring phenomena involves quite a bit of traveling and expense! If you are going to invest the time and treasure to cross this off of your bucket list, then let me help you take great Aurora photographs. [Read more…] about How To Photograph The Aurora Borealis

4 Steps to Photographing the Milky Way

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The Milky Way arcs over Bryce Canyon in this 7 frame image stitched together in Photoshop / Photo by Jeff Stamer
The Milky Way arcs over Bryce Canyon in this 7 frame image stitched together in Photoshop / Photo by Jeff Stamer
Technological progress in camera sensor sensitivity during the past decade has dramatically enhanced low-light photography. The ability to photograph the Milky Way is perhaps the most awe-inspiring result of these advances.

This post will give you the basics you need to start making your own Milky Way images. If you really get hooked and want more details, check out my more detailed post. [Read more…] about 4 Steps to Photographing the Milky Way

Use PhotoPills To Plan Your Next Milky Way Shot

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PhotoPills
PhotoPills
One of the great things about being a photographer in this day and age is that we have a ton of awesome tools available for planning our landscape shots. I’ve talked about many of them already, including The Photographer’s Ephemeris, PhotoPills, Google Earth, and Stellarium. Together, these four tools can help you answer just about any question you have about a potential landscape shot.

Well, one of these tools (PhotoPills) just added an awesome new feature to their app: a 2D Milky Way Planner. And, the creators just published an excellent tutorial on their website on how to use this new feature.

So, if you’re interested in photographing the Milky Way in one of your nighttime landscape images, be sure to check this out! [Read more…] about Use PhotoPills To Plan Your Next Milky Way Shot

Total Lunar Eclipse This Saturday

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Photo by Jiyang Chen
Photo by Jiyang Chen (used under the CC-Attr-SA license)
This Saturday, December 10th, there will be a total eclipse of the Moon, visible from western North America, and much of Asia and Australia. To see it in the western US, you’ll have to wake up pretty early (about 4:45 AM PST if you want to see the entire show), but it’s well worth it.

In a total eclipse, the Moon turns bright red (due to the way the light from the Sun is scattered as it passes through our atmosphere), and it’s truly a beautiful site. In fact, it was a lunar eclipse that originally inspired me to get a digital SLR 🙂

If you’re interested in photographing the eclipse, check out this great blog post by Michael Frye. He offers some good tips, especially about exposure. [Read more…] about Total Lunar Eclipse This Saturday

11 great resources for night photography

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Photo by Bob / hisglassworks (used under CC-Attr-NC-ND)
Photo by Bob / hisglassworks (used under CC-Attr-NC-ND)
When the sun goes down, you might normally put away your camera and head home or crawl into your sleeping bag, but what about all that wonderful natural light you only find at night?

From the countless stars, meteors, distant planets, to the light of the moon, the night sky offers a pretty spectacular light show! And although the light may be dim, it’s definitely still possible to capture some of it.

I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with night photography, but below is a list of 11 great resources I found this week. I’m looking forward to trying them out soon 🙂 [Read more…] about 11 great resources for night photography