Arches National Park Photograph - Deep Space Spectacle From Double Arch by Mike Berenson

Deep Space Spectacle From Double Arch is a photograph by Mike Berenson which was uploaded on May 5th, 2013.

Deep Space Spectacle From Double Arch

Light painted Double Arch reaches across the night sky filled with colorful stars, planets, and other celestial objects. As a wide-field... more

by Mike Berenson

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Title

Deep Space Spectacle From Double Arch

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

Light painted Double Arch reaches across the night sky filled with colorful stars, planets, and other celestial objects. As a wide-field astrophotography (aka nightscape photographer), I like to capture elements of the night sky with interesting foreground elements to give a sense of place.

And while I love the foregrounds I've found in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, there's something about Arches National Park that feels to me like a photographers' playground. And with that, normal sleeping patterns go right out the window!

This is a scene from Double Arch where I did some off-camera light painting on the arches overhead with the off-camera part thanks to a wireless trigger. On the location, there was something about the unique shapes that caught my eye and gave a really interesting foreground against the deep, dark, night sky.

And much like identifying mountains in pictures, I really enjoy identifying night sky images of the stars I've been able to capture. I'll admit this image was one of the tougher challenges I've seen and it definitely helped to have another image from the same time & place that showed more of the sky to give some perspective. In the end, it was the distinctive shape of the Coma Bernices that allowed me to recognize the location in the sky. In this image, constellations overhead include (from top to bottom) Coma Bernices, Leo, Ursa Major, Leo Minor, and Cancer.

This composite image comes from my Nikon D800 and Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 lens with two exposures - one was focused on the stars with ISO 6400 f/2.0 for 20 seconds and the other focused on the arch with a lower ISO setting (1600) for light painting. The star spikes come from a post processing tool called Star Spikes Pro 2.

Uploaded

May 5th, 2013