Eleven Eclipses: Following Our Friends in the Path of Totality

Here we are. After waiting for it to come for years, the week of the Great North American Eclipse is now over.

Four of the five of us at National Parks at Night enjoyed the few minutes of darkness. I was with my daughter Maggie on an eclipse-chasing road trip to eastern Kentucky. Lance was with his wife Katherine in their backyard in Vermont. Matt and Gabe were leading our workshop in Arkansas’ Hot Springs National Park.

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In the days that followed, we looked around social media and saw so many wonderful and creative images made during that 4 minutes of magic, set in so many inspiring places along the path of totality. And we noticed that many of those photographs were made by former attendees of our workshops and conferences. Really—the work we’ve seen has blown us away.

So we decided that instead of celebrating our own eclipse images, we want to celebrate theirs.

Below you’ve find eclipse photographs and eclipse stories from 11 of the amazing night photographers we’ve had the pleasure of working alongside over the past decade. We hope you enjoy their art.

Of course, these aren’t all the photographs created by our alums, nor by the uncountable number of night photographers around the globe. So many images are still showing up on social media, and we applaud them all.

If we missed you in the celebration below, please add your photo and your story to the comments section, or on our social media. We’d love to see what you did!

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Charles Barker

cbarkerphoto.com • Instagram

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Nikon Z 9 with a Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens at 400mm. Composite of exposures from 1/800, f/8, ISO 800 (phases) to 1/60, f/22, ISO 800 (totality).

I went to Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio. I approached this without full awareness of just how special this experience would be. I planned for this event, spent lots of time listening to others describe it, I’d seen pictures and thought I knew what I was about to see. Yet, as the moment of totality arrived, I was still astonished, startled and in awe. Staring at the dark sphere where the sun should be, I realized I’d taken the sun for granted my entire life. The collective gasp and applause of other park-goers nearby reminded me that we were all sharing this amazing moment, and it was one none of us would ever forget.

Ed Finn

Instagram

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Fujifilm X-T5 with a Fujifilm XF 8-16mm f/2.8 lens at 15 mm. Composite of 35 frames shot at 1/40, f/5.6, ISO 400.

I shot this in Lake Placid, New York. We drove there Friday through a snowstorm, and it snowed all day Saturday as well, with solid thick clouds. We scouted the area for the best shot on Sunday. The eclipse was high in the sky Monday, which made finding an interesting foreground a challenge. At the back of the hotel we were staying in I could frame the shot through some trees, with mountains behind. The area filled with people from the hotel and the neighborhood to see the eclipse, and we were pleased that the snow stopped and the clouds lightened by showtime for the eclipse tailgate parties.

Holly Looney

ourworldinphotos.com

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Canon R3 with a Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 lens at 400 mm. Composite images shot at 1/500, f/8, ISO 1600.

I shot this in Ouachita National Forest in Hot Springs, Arkansas, as part of National Parks at Night’s Hot Springs and the Total Eclipse workshop. I did this composite because I was struck by the number of onlookers who left the area following the end of totality. That was definitely not the end of the eclipse and this is a visual of that fact.

James Embrescia

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Sony a1 with a Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens.1/500, f/8, ISO 800, shot at intervals of 1 minute, 20 seconds intervals.

I just took the online black and white workshop with by Tim and Lance, so I wanted to try a black and white picture of the eclipse. I like photos that capture abstract patterns and the motion of natural things, so this was a natural for me. I picked an interval I thought would work based on something I read about speed of motion during an eclipse, and I was lucky.

Jurgen Lobert

Linktree

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Sun images: Nikon Z 6II with a Nikon Z 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 at 600 mm. 1/180, f/8, ISO 100. Foreground: Nikon Z 6II with a Sony 14mm f/1.8 lens at 1/2, f/11, ISO 200.

After planning for Texas because of less chance for clouds, I cancelled my trip on short notice to escape the tornado warnings and rain forecast, and I ended up near Pittsburg, New Hampshire, on a perfectly clear day with a bunch of friends. I decided to stress myself out and operate three cameras, one for closeups, one for landscape and another for a 360-degree view with a circular fisheye to capture that awesome moment with darkness above and sunset all around.

Klaus-Peter Statz

Instagram

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Totality: Nikon D780 with Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens at 400mm. 1/160, f/8, ISO 400. Foreground: Sony RX100V at 24mm (built-in lens). 1/30, f/1.8, ISO 500.

After shooting the 2017 eclipse (also during a National Parks at Night workshop, in Idaho) and missing most of the spectacle as I was busy operating two cameras, I vowed that this time I would shoot only the corona and would spend the remaining time watching the eclipse with my own eyes. When totality happened I had my Nikon shoot bracketed close-up exposures, triggered with a remote release. Watching the eclipse I was so impressed by what I saw that I spontaneously snapped a few frames with my trusted Sony point-and-shoot, one of which serves as the foreground for this composite. The sun/moon at totality is one of the frames shot with the Nikon at 400mm. The two together are the perfect representation of what I saw and experienced.

Lawrence Lee

Instagram

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Pentax K-1 Mark II with a Pentax 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 lens at 410mm. 1/2500, f/8, ISO 800.

This was my first total solar eclipse experience and it was truly amazing. Shot in Lake Placid, New York, at the Olympic Ski Jumping Complex. We had spent the weekend scouting locations and chose this spot for its easily identifiable ski jumping towers. I shot the eclipse with two cameras using the 150-450mm telephoto lens and a 15-30mm lens.

Patricia Blake

Instagram

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Sun images: Canon 5D Mark IV with a 200mm lens. 1/800, f/6.3, ISO 1600 during totality, plus bracketed exposures with a NiSi Solar Filter Pro Nano UV/IR Cut ND during the other phases. Foreground: Canon 60D with a 14mm fisheye lens. 1/6, f/8, ISO 1600.

The 2024 eclipse happened to go right over my hometown in New Castle, Indiana. I just knew that I wanted to get a shot of the eclipse phases over a historic Indiana barn. This beautiful barn was built in 1860 and happens to be owned by an astrophysicist who was thrilled to have a night sky nerd like me ask if I could sit in his empty cornfield during the eclipse. I made some wonderful new friends and truly enjoyed photographing. Getting muddy in a cornfield was absolutely worth it!

Shari Hunt

sharihuntphotography.com • Instagram

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Sony a7R III with a Sigma 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens. 1/250, f/6.3, ISO 100.

I was initially going to chase clear skies, but decided the day before the eclipse to stay in Dallas. With heavy low clouds most of the morning (even just an hour before totality), I thought it would be a total bust. However, I met fellow National Parks at Night alum Beth Kochur at our nearby lake and set up, with fingers crossed. Everything turned out perfect just in time and the eclipse was insane. Now I understand the addiction (kinda like night photography).

Sudhir Mehta

Instagram

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Sony a7R III with Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens at 400mm. Composite of totality pictures shot at shutter speeds ranging from 1/200 to 2 seconds, f/11, ISO 200.

I shot the eclipse while on the National Parks at Night workshop to Hot Springs National Park. This was shot in Charlton, near Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Terry Kahler

tkahler.com • Instagram

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Sony a7 IV with a Sony 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens. 1/160, f/6.3, ISO 800.

I shot in Austin, Texas. I wasn’t too excited about this event as photographing the solar eclipse is not part of my bucket list. As a result, I was not prepared. My camera gear sat on the shelf as it has for months. At about 1:13 p.m. local time, even though we had very cloudy skies and I had only minutes to prepare, I decided that I should get myself in gear and prepare to photograph the event just in case conditions improved. So I got up from my desk and retrieved my camera gear only to note that the batteries were depleted. However, I found one battery with a 47 percent charge. I inserted the battery in the camera, mounted my lens and headed out to photograph this astronomical event. Right place, right time.

Your Turn

Did you shoot the eclipse too? We’d love to see your images! Share in the comments below, or on our Facebook page, or on Instagram (tag us @nationalparksatnight #nationalparksatnight #seizethenight). Be sure to tell a story too—the technical aspects, the challenge overcome, or a tale of the experience.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and director of content with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015) and Photographing Lighthouses (Sidelight Books, 2024). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

From Beginning to End, How to Expose a Solar Eclipse

It’s almost here! The Great North American Eclipse happens only two days from now, on April 8, 2024.

Much of America—especially the camera-owning folk—has been waiting for this day since being dazzled in 2017 by the last total eclipse to span the continent. The hype is real, and the reason is good.

To help folks get ready, last week we published a brand new e-book, There Goes the Sun: A Guide to Photographing a Solar Eclipse. Below is an excerpt from that book.

The book covers pretty much everything you’d want to know about photographing an eclipse, from gear to scouting, from shooting to editing, and more. The excerpt below is from the chapter on shooting. We hope it gives you an edge toward getting some great images on Monday.

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THE SUN’S MOVEMENT

The sun moves its own diameter every 2 minutes. Setting a shooting interval for every 2 minutes will make sure that you capture many phases of the eclipse without any overlap. Gabe stacked the accompanying eclipse photo with a frame shot every 3 minutes, which gave enough separation between each shot.

Note that without a tracker to keep the sun in the middle of the frame during all the phases of the eclipse, you will need to readjust your frame every 10 minutes with a 300mm lens or every 5 minutes with a 600mm lens.

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Eclipse composite. © 2017 Gabriel Biderman. Nikon D750 with a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. 13 images stacked in Photoshop.

CAMERA SETTINGS

Settings are very subjective. Just like any day or twilight shot, you can be creative with adjusting your exposure for a desired effect that emphasizes movement, clarity or depth.

Also note that the exposure can vary depending upon your filter strength, clouds in the sky and how high the sun is (eclipses that happen low to the horizon will need to cut through more atmospheric haze, which reduces luminosity).

Your exposure will change as the eclipse progresses, and further on in we’ll detail what you can expect, in chronological order.

We suggest reading through it a few times to get comfortable with how the light, and therefore your settings, will change over the course of a few hours.

A good starting point for exposing for the sun, with a solar filter on the lens, with clear skies, is:

1/500, f/8, ISO 800

Why these settings? These are safe settings that will play to the strength of most cameras and lenses for excellent image quality. Let’s explain why:

Aperture

An aperture of f/8 is the sweet spot for most lenses and will not cause extreme diffraction or flare. If you are using a telephoto lens, stopping down to f/11 would also work and be more in the sweet spot.

Shutter Speed

The general rule for handheld telephoto photography is to use a shutter speed that’s the reciprocal of your focal length. For example, for a 500mm lens the shutter speed would be at least as fast as 1/500. Theoretically this prevents the image from getting soft due to camera movement caused by heavy gear.

That said, we recommend that you use a tripod and turn off VR/IS/OIS for the eclipse. This will make any relatively fast shutter speed effective. We’ve shot totality at as low as 2 seconds as part of exposure brackets to get even more detail in the corona. However, during the partial phases the sun will be brighter and we can play to the safer shutter speeds between 1/125 and 1/1000 to the best sharpness. Even at fast shutter speeds, with long lenses, try to trigger your camera with your built-in or external intervalometer—this will help prevent any camera shake.

ISO

This is probably the most subjective choice. How comfortable are you shooting with your camera at ISO 800, 1600, 3200 or 6400? If there are ISOs you want to stay away from, you can probably pull that off. This will be easy during the partial phases, as the bright sun will easily allow for ISOs of 100 to 800.

However, once the eclipse is 90 percent full, things start to get dark. During totality the brightness will be equivalent to the beginning of nautical twilight. There will be a need to let in more light, and ISO is usually the best setting to push up.

Note that the higher the ISO, the more noise will be prevalent in the image. However, we find that modern cameras (2020 and beyond) can easily handle ISOs up to 6400. Plus, these days there are plenty of ways to reduce noise with post-processing.

TELEPHOTO SHOT

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Gabe Biderman set up for a telephoto shot of the 2023 annular eclipse.

A telephoto shot will be taking up most of your attention.

Focal length and tracking are the key components to photographing the eclipse with a telephoto lens.

Another important aspect is to practice, practice, practice prior to the eclipse. Most likely a telephoto rig will be less familiar than what you use on a daily/weekly basis. Get used to tracking the transit as well as pointing the camera and lens high in the sky.

Does your camera have a swivel-out screen? That will make aiming high at the sun a lot easier.

If you don’t use a tracker, you will need to continually recompose, or the sun will move out of your frame in mere minutes. If do use a tracker, keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn’t flip and fall over. Definitely practice this in the months/weeks leading up to the eclipse.

Base Exposure

In terms of exposure with a telephoto, you have your base of 1/500, f/8, ISO 800 for shooting the sun prior to and through the beginning of the partial eclipse. We strongly advise bracketing to nail an exposure. Time will be scarce—you don’t want to waste any fumbling with third-stop adjustments. And memory is cheap, so bracket and fire away, then find your best exposures in post.

To do this, set your bracketing to three frames with one-stop increments. You can continue to use this three-stop bracket through 90 percent of the partial eclipse as the exposure won’t change much, unless clouds come in.

Alternatively, if you’re comfortable that you have the perfect exposure, you can just take that one shot every 2 to 3 minutes.

How do you know if your telephoto exposure is correct?

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Figure 1.

A good exposure for a partial eclipse is one that doesn’t have extreme blooming around the sun and that keeps the sun spots sharp. Check your histogram. Figure 1 was for an image shot with a Lee solar filter. Note that the histogram is pushed 90 percent to the right, but the highlights are not clipping. Shadows, of course, are being clipped due to the black sky surrounding the sun. The exposure settings were 1/250, f/8, ISO 800.

Losing Light

Once the eclipse gets to 90 percent total, you’ll need to adjust your exposure. Anticipate that. You should really pay attention once the sun is half hidden. Begin to monitor your exposures even more frequently. Check the histogram—is anything overexposed? Is there blooming around the sun? The black around the sun should be solid black, because we are basing the exposure solely on the sun. We want it bright, but not overexposed.

Once the sun starts to look like a crescent, you might have to open up one stop (either raise your ISO or lower your shutter speed). By the time the eclipse is at 90 percent and closing in on totality, you might need to adjust your exposure by opening up an additional one to two stops. Monitor your histogram and continue to bracket three frames at one-stop increments.

Diamonds in the Sky

Right before totality, the first diamond ring phenomenon appears: a sharp burst of light around the edge of the moon that signals the last gasp of sunlight before totality begins (Figure 2). The first diamond ring is difficult to photograph because it lasts for approximately 10 seconds and you need to juggle a few things. First you need to remove your solar filter (perhaps remove it a few seconds early, anticipating when it will happen), then you need to adjust your exposure to the light without the solar filter on (which will be an additional two to three stops you need to let in).

Don’t sweat it. The diamond ring also happens at the end of totality, so you’ll get another chance. And it’s much easier to nail the second one.

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Figure 2. Diamond ring phenomenon. © 2017 Gabriel Biderman. Fujufilm X-T2 with a 300mm lens. 1/15, f/22, ISO 800.

Totality

A good starting point for totality is:

1/60, f/8, ISO 1600

However this is just a launching off point. We advise bracketing seven frames with one-stop increments. If you are in burst mode, you can knock these off pretty quickly.

Bracketing generally is applied to your shutter speed, so set your ISO and aperture to something you are comfortable with and that also allows the bracket to not go deep into long shutter speeds (in the seconds).

That being said, we have seen plenty of creative shots during totality that use either HDR or composite blending to incorporate shutter speeds up to 20 seconds. These overexposed shots will really show off how far the corona extends. If you bracket, you can retain some of the brighter highlights and then blend it all together in post.

Post-Totality

If you had set a timer to the beginning of the eclipse, then you’ll be one step ahead in preparing for the second diamond ring effect. Stop down your aperture to f/16 for the diamond ring, as that will amplify the sunburst coming off the moon. You’ll have about 10 to 15 seconds to bracket and nail the diamond ring before too much of the sun is revealed and starts to just blob out.

That’s when it is time to put the solar filter back on and adjust your exposure to a crescent sun. Set your interval for every 2 minutes and adjust your exposure as the sun gets brighter and brighter. Soon you’ll be around the previously recommended exposures of 1/500, f/8, ISO 800, and you can just continue to bracket three frames for every interval. Continue to do this for the rest of the partial phases.

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Figure 3.

If you do this you’ll set yourself up to accomplish:

• capturing any single phase of the eclipse

• capturing multiple phases of the eclipse that can be composited together creatively (Figure 3)

• an HDR of your bracketed images to bring out more detail and dynamic range

• a time-lapse of the eclipse (if you shot even more intervals—this is recommended more for people with trackers that will keep the sun steady in the middle of the frame)

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Are You Ready for the Eclipse?

Eclipse photography is a ton of fun, but you need to be prepared. In addition to the details about planning exposures, our e-book also covers:

• gear critical for eclipse photography

• safety guidelines

• finding where the sun will be

• how to use the light of the eclipsed sun

• processing eclipse photos, including blending and compositing

• how to become an eclipse chaser

• and more!

To get your copy of There Goes the Sun, click below:

Wrapping Up

When you’re done shooting the eclipse, we’d love to see your images! Share in the comments below, or on our Facebook page, or on Instagram (tag us @nationalparksatnight #nationalparksatnight #seizethenight). Be sure to tell a story too—the technical aspects, the challenge overcome, or a tale of the experience.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and director of content with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015) and Photographing Lighthouses (Sidelight Books, 2024). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Black Hole Sun: Get Ready to Shoot the 2024 Eclipse with Our New E-Book

It certainly seems like we are living in a golden age of eclipses.

When we started National Parks at Night in 2015, we were in the middle of a rare tetrad of blood red lunar eclipses. We experienced the 2017 total solar eclipse in a variety of ways, with Gabe and Matt leading hands-on experiences in Idaho and Oregon, respectively, and me sitting on a blanket with my daughter in South Carolina.

Then in 2023 we seized our first ring of fire eclipse with a group trip to Capitol Reef National Park, and with another group learning PhotoPills at the edge of the eclipse path in Joshua Tree National Park.

Then we prepared for the next big one: the Great North American Eclipse of 2024. It’s happening this coming Monday, April 8.

To help get you prepared, we’re excited to announce our brand new e-book, There Goes the Sun: A Guide to Photographing a Solar Eclipse.

What’s in the Book

The book comprises 66 pages and is chock full of everything you’d want to know about shooting an eclipse. Including:

• a history of eclipses

• a list and explanations of the gear required

• notes on eye and gear safety

• results on testing different solar filters and their affect on color

• detailed instructions on scouting, shooting and processing

• a gear guide for all sorts of products to help in the cause

• and more!

Sample Pages

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Sample Tips

Here are three tidbits on eclipse photography that you can find in the book:

1. “If you manually follow the eclipse with a long lens, it’s a good plan to allow room for the sun to travel across your frame for some time and then readjust your framing when it nears the edge. This does, however, require attention to your camera throughout all the phases you will be photographing.”

2. “The sun moves its own diameter every 2 minutes. Setting a shooting interval for every 2 minutes will make sure that you capture many phases of the eclipse without any overlap.”

3. “For everything except totality images, you can probably edit one to taste and then synchronize that image with the rest. But for your frames close to or during totality, which you shot at different exposures, you’ll need to edit them separately to get them to match.”

Get Your Copy Today

Whether you’re new to photographing eclipses and need to know where to start, or whether you’ve done this before and want to level up, we have you as covered as a black-hole sun!

Get your copy of There Goes the Sun for $9.99 today by clicking below:

Then, when you’re done shooting the eclipse, we’d love to see your images! Share in the comments below, or on our Facebook page, or on Instagram (tag us @nationalparksatnight #nationalparksatnight #seizethenight). Be sure to tell a story too—the technical aspects, the challenge overcome, or a tale of the experience.

Chris Nicholson is a partner and director of content with National Parks at Night, and author of Photographing National Parks (Sidelight Books, 2015) and Photographing Lighthouses (Sidelight Books, 2024). Learn more about national parks as photography destinations, subscribe to Chris' free e-newsletter, and more at www.PhotographingNationalParks.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

Meteors and Eclipses and Comets, Oh My!—The Celestial Events of 2018

A happy new year to all of our readers! 2017 was pretty amazing for all of us at National Parks at Night. We led workshops at nine different locations in the United States and Iceland. We witnessed auroras, the total solar eclipse, meteor showers, and billions and billions of stars.

2018 is looking just as exciting. We are kicking the new year off with a blue supermoon in Biscayne National Park, celebrating both the Biscayne and Redwood National Park 50th anniversary with a group show that will feature our students’ work at both parks in October, and will be offering 12 workshops including stops in Scotland, South Iceland and all along the Blue Ridge Parkway, to name a few. (Three workshops are sold out, but if you are interested in those, sign up for the wait list, as anything can happen!)

We hope that you join us for an adventure sometime soon. Whether you’re coming with us or heading out on your own, there are as many reasons to photograph at night as there are stars in the sky. Shooting any night can be, and often is, spectacular, but there are also some special dates to get outdoors with your camera, as there are scores of notable celestial events to photograph in 2018.

You already know about many of these if you own a copy of our 2018 calendar, “Shots in the Dark,” where they’re marked conveniently for you! As for any specific times mentioned, we gleaned that information by using our favorite photo-planning app, PhotoPills. The approximate times in the list below are based on the U.S. Eastern time zone—so if you live elsewhere, we recommend double-checking the times in the planner section of PhotoPills.

It also goes without saying that most of these celestial events are best viewed in dark sky locations—of which our National Park system has plenty! If you live in an area with high levels of light pollution and want to find darker skies, we recommend checking out Dark Site Finder.

With no further ado, here’s the list of great night sky happenings to focus your wide apertures on in 2018! (The first two of these have already passed, but we’re including them for the sake of being comprehensive.)

January 2: Full Moon/Supermoon

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Supermoon through 3 Bridges. Nikon D750 and Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 lens. 1/2 second, f/11, ISO 400. © Gabriel Biderman.

We immediately led off the year with a full moon—and a supermoon, no less! A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with the moon’s closest approach to Earth. The moon is super because it appears closer and brighter than normal. Your best bet for photographing it is during moonrise the day before (in this case, January 1) so that you can have better balanced exposure with the twilight foreground. Find and interesting foreground like I did in capturing the moon rising between the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Willaimsburgh bridges in New York City (above). (Rest assured, these tips will become useful again at the end of the month.)

January 3-4: Quadrantids Meteor Shower

There was no rest for the night photographer, as right after the full blue moon kicked off, the first meteor shower of the year hit! (Stay tuned for an article on how to photograph and process meteor showers, coming later this year.) The peak of the shower has passed, but you may be able to spot some sky streaks this weekend. (It’s good to note throughout this article that, just like with fall foliage, the peak times are the best for shooting meteor showers, but they’re not the only times. You should be able to find streaks in the sky for several nights before and after peak.)

Quadrantids is an above-average meteor shower with up to 40 meteors per hour at its peak, which lasts from the evening of January 3 into the early morning of the 4th. The field of meteoroids was produced by the now-extinct comet 2003 EH1, which was discovered in, you guessed it, 2003. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Bootes.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: waning gibbous 95% that will be up all night

Worth Shooting? This is a tough one. The full moon will make all but the brightest meteors invisible. If you are in a warm, dark sky location—why not? But in the north, we might sit this one out.

January 31: Full Moon, Supermoon, Blue Moon and Total Lunar Eclipse

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Full Moon over Hudson. Nikon D700 and Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 lens. 2 minutes, f/11, ISO 200. © Gabriel Biderman.

OK, lots going on this night. We will be leading a workshop in Biscayne National Park (still a couple of spots left!), which will be a perfect location to view the supermoon rising over the forever horizon. We may even explore some reflecting moon trails as we explore this water world of a park.

A total lunar eclipse happens when Earth blocks the sun’s light from directly hitting the full moon. During this time, the moon is in Earth’s shadow—no direct sunlight reflects off the lunar surface. However, the 0.12-albedo surface does catch some scattered light, which causes the moon to still be visible with a slight reddish hue. This is sometimes called the “blood moon.”

The total lunar eclipse will not be viewable in Biscayne, but will be in many other national parks and wild spaces in large parts of the world. If you live in western North America, eastern Asia, Russia, Australia or around the Pacific Rim, you’ll be in the path of totality.

February 15: Partial Solar Eclipse

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Taking a bite out of the Great American Solar Eclipse. Fujifilm XT-2 and 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. 1/250, f/8, ISO 800. © Gabriel Biderman.

If you live in Chile, Argentina or are planning a trip to Antarctica, this would be a fun day to be outside with a camera. This will not rival the total eclipse we saw in the U.S. last year; instead it will look like a bite is taken out of the sun when viewed with solar glasses and filters. But it’s absolutely still worth shooting. (For advice about gear, techniques and safety when photographing an eclipse, see our free e-guide, “Here Comes the Sun.”)

March 20: Vernal Equinox (Northern Hemisphere), Autumnal Equinox (Southern Hemisphere)

Winter is over and there will be equal parts of day and night … with the days slowly getting longer, boohoo!

March 31: Full Moon, Blue Moon

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Full Moon through the Auroras, Iceland. Sony A7s and Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 lens. 15 seconds, f/8, ISO 25,600. © Gabriel Biderman.

Our second blue moon in the first three months of the year. This is unique, as is the interesting fact that 2018 features no full moon in February.

April 16: First New Moon of the Milky Way season

You’ll need to stay up late. Depending on where you are, the return of the Milky Way’s core to the night sky is reason to celebrate! It should break the horizon around 1:30 a.m. and hang around for three hours before the morning twilight erases the stars.

April 22-23: Lyrids Meteor Shower

Lyrids is an average shower that can have about 20 meteors per hour at its peak on the evening of April 22 and the early morning of the 23rd. The shower is produced by dust particles left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Lyra.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: first quarter 50% that will set at 1:46 a.m.

Worth Shooting? Yes! With the half moon setting after midnight, the Lyrids could definitely put on a good show.

May 6-7: Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower

Eta Aquarids is an above-average shower that can have up to 30 meteors per hour in the Northern Hemisphere, and up to 60 per hour in the Southern Hemisphere! Its peak is on the evening of May 6 into the early morning of the 7th. It is produced by the dust particles left behind by the famous Halley’s Comet, which has been recorded since ancient times. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Aquarius.

Best Viewed: from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Moon Phase: waning gibbous 59% that will rise at 1:41 a.m.

Worth Shooting? Yes. With no moon to begin the night, you should be able to see the start of the show during clears skies. After 1:30 a.m., only the brightest of the meteors will be visible.

May 15: New Moon

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The Ruins of Hovenweep. Hasselblad X1D and 30mm f/3.5 lens. Blend of foreground at 6 minutes, f/4, ISO 800 and sky at 23 seconds, f/4, ISO 6400. © Gabriel Biderman.

Welcome the Milky Way galactic core someplace dark, as it rises around 11 p.m.!

June 13: New Moon

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Milky Way Arching over Centennial Valley, Montana. Nikon D750 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. Five-image panorama at 30 seconds, f/4, ISO 6400. © Gabriel Biderman.

Even better Milky Way core, as it will be up around 9:15 p.m.—during nautical twilight in most of the U.S. Prime time of the year for the Milky Way arching shots!

June 21: Summer Solstice

Shortest night of the year. Boo!

July 13: New Moon, Partial Solar Eclipse (way south)

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Under Sipapu, Natural Bridges National Monument. Nikon D750 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400. © Gabriel Biderman.

The Milky Way will be high in the sky during twilight. Perfect for straight-through-the-sky Milky Way shots. (To learn more about the difference between this type of Milky Way photo and arching panos, see our “Five Questions” blog post from last July.)

Also on this day is a partial solar eclipse for our friends in southern Australia and Antarctica.

July 27: Total Lunar Eclipse

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Higher Rolling with the Blood Moon, Vegas 2014. Sony A7r and Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. 4 seconds, f/11, ISO 800. © Gabriel Biderman.

Visible throughout most of Europe, Africa, western and central Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Western Australia. (Visit the NASA website for more information.)

July 28-29: Delta Aqaurids Meteor Shower

This is an average shower, with 20 meteors per hour during its peak from the evening of July 28 through the early morning of the 29th. These meteors are produced from the debris left behind by the comets Marsden and Kracht, and they appear to radiate from the constellation Aquarius.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: waning gibbous 99% (essentially, a full moon) and will be up all night

Worth Shooting? Probably not. The full moon will obscure all but the brightest of meteors. (Though you can be sure we’ll be on the lookout during our Blue Ridge Parkway workshop.)

August 11: New Moon, Partial Solar Eclipse

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The August Core over Centennial Valley, Montana. Nikon D750 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400. © Gabriel Biderman.

During this new moon, the Milky Way will appear high in the sky immediately as darkness falls.

This partial solar eclipse will be seen in parts of northeast Canada, Greenland, extreme northern Europe, and northern and eastern Asia. Best viewing will be in northern Russia with 68 percent of the sun blocked.

August 12: Perseids Meteor Shower

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Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Nikon D750 and 15mm Zeiss Distagon f/2.8 lens. 234 images at 22 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400, plus a single exposure at 382 seconds, ISO 2000 for the landscape after moonrise. © 2017 Matt Hill.

One of the best meteor showers of the year, with 60 per hour during its peak on August 12 into the early morning of the 13th. These meteors are produced from the comet Swift-Tuttle, and they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus.

Best Viewed: from darkness to morning

Moon Phase: waxing crescent 3%, but will have set by nightfall

Worth Shooting? Yes, yes, yes! This is our personal favorite meteor shower. Lots of meteors, new moon and comfortable temperatures. So fingers crossed for clear skies, and fire away!

September 9: New Moon

The Milky Way core will be visible for only the first three hours of darkness (will set around 11:30 p.m.).

September 23: Autumnal Equinox (Northern Hemisphere), Vernal Equinox (Southern Hemisphere)

Equal parts day and night (the moon and sun will be rising and setting around the same time)which could create some beautiful twilight photos.

Also, in the Northern Hemisphere, the nights start to get longer—woohoo!

October 8: Draconids Meteor Shower

Draconids is a minor meteor shower which averages 10 meteors per hour during the peak of early evening on October 8. The meteors are produced by comet 21P Giacobini-Zinner, which was discovered in 1900. They appear to radiate from the constellation Draco.

Best Viewed: early evening, from 8 p.m. to midnight

Moon Phase: new moon 0.4%, and will not be visible at night

Worth Shooting? Yes. Even though it is a minor meteor show, no moon means that you’ll see even the faintest meteors in a dark sky location.

October 9: New Moon

Milky Way core will be visible for 1 1/2 hours after astronomical twilight.

October 21-22: Orionids Meteor Shower

Orionids is an average shower that has about 20 meteors per hour at its peak from late on October 21 until early morning on the 22nd. The meteors are produced from the dust left behind by the prolific Halley’s Comet. They appear to radiate from the constellation Orion.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: waxing gibbous 91%—essentially full and will be up most of the night

Worth Shooting? Yes. Even though the full moon will block the fainter meteors, the Orionids produce very bright streaks that should be visible throughout the night.

November 5-6: Taurids Meteor Shower

Taurids is a minor meteor shower that averages five to 10 per hour, and peaks on the evening of the November 5 into the morning of the 6th. They are produced by Asteroid TG10 and comet 2P Encke, and appear to radiate from the constellation Taurus.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: no moon—the thin crescent will set about the same time as sunset

Worth Shooting? I wouldn’t make plans around it, but if you happen to be in a dark location with clear skies, be on the lookout.

November 7: New Moon

Milky Way core will be visible for approximately the first hour of darkness.

November 17-18: Leonids Meteor Shower

Average meteor shower—15 per hour during peak from the evening of November 17 until early morning on the 18th. Produced by the comet Temple-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865. The meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Leo.

Best Viewed: early morning (before twilight) of November 18

Moon Phase: waxing gibbous 72%, setting at 1:36 a.m.

Worth Shooting? Yes, for the night owl. Factor in the bright moon not setting until 1:36 a.m. on the 18th, but you’ll have between then and 5:30 a.m. to shoot the meteors. (These might add an interesting night-sky component during our black-and-white workshop in Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark that week.)

December 7: New Moon

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No Core in the Haystack, Oregon 2016. Nikon D750 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. 30 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200. © Gabriel Biderman.

Milky Way core will not be visible during the night in the Northern Hemisphere.

December 12-16: Comet 46P/Wirtanen

It looks like we will witness the 10th closest comet in modern times! It should be viewable to the naked eye on December 12 as it reaches perihelion—its closest approach to the sun. Look toward the bull constellation, Taurus, that night.

On December 16, the comet will make its closest approach to Earth, soaring by only 7.1 million miles away, and will be visible to the naked eye. Look toward the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.

For more information, see this breakdown from the University of Maryland.

December 13-14: Geminids Meteor Shower

This is probably the best meteor shower for photography, with an average of 120 multicolored meteors during peak from the evening of December 13 until early morning on the 14th. The roaming meteoroids were produced by Asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1982, and the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Gemini.

Best Viewed: after midnight

Moon Phase: waxing crescent 36%, and sets around 10:30 p.m.

Worth Shooting? If you can find someplace not too cold and have clear skies—YES, YES, YES!

December 21: Winter Solstice

Longest night of the year!!!

Warning—Northern Hemisphere nights start to get shorter after this.

December 21-22: Ursids Meteor Shower

Ursids is a minor meteor shower—with an average of five to 10 per hour from the evening of the December 21 until the early morning of the 22nd. Produced by the comet Tuttle (discovered in 1790), the meteors appear to radiate from the constellation Ursa Minor.

Best Viewed: after midnight with your fingers crossed

Moon Phase: waxing gibbous 99%, and sets just before sunrise

Worth Shooting? Probably not—with the full moon up the entire night, likely cold temperatures and not many bright meteors, I’d sit this one out.

Wrapping Up

Phew! That about sums up the top celestial events to photograph in 2018. I hope this inspires you to seize the night in the upcoming year!

As you do, remember that we love to see your night images! Feel free to share them on our Facebook page, or to tag us in Instagram. We always love looking, we will always respond, and we are eager to share in more and more conversations about night photography.

Gabriel Biderman is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. He is a Brooklyn-based fine art and travel photographer, and author of Night Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots (Peachpit, 2014). During the daytime hours you'll often find Gabe at one of many photo events around the world working for B&H Photo’s road marketing team. See his portfolio and workshop lineup at www.ruinism.com.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT

10 For 2017: Breaking Down Our Favorite Images of the Year

While we look forward to 2018, we can’t help but look back and take stock of what a great 2017 we’ve had. It was an incredible year filled with awesome people, magical destinations and inspiring photography. These experiences simply would not have been possible without the folks who attended our workshops, lectures and events. To all of the National Parks at Night alumni, supporters and followers, we say thank you. You’ve made our year a truly memorable one.

As we all move from this year into the next, it’s natural to look back at work we’ve done and art we’ve created, to remember great experiences, or to see how we’ve grown creatively. For our final blog post of the year, the National Parks at Night crew did just that. Below we share with you our favorites two images each from 2017, and our thoughts about how we created them.

Carpe noctem!

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Chris Nicholson

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Cape Cod National Seashore, Massachusetts. Nikon D5, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. 20 seconds, f/3.5 ISO 8000.

My two favorite photos of 2017 were both from the coast—probably not a surprise if you know me, as I love being on the shore, and I love shooting on the shore.

The first of my favorites is a photograph I made the night before our Cape Cod National Seashore workshop started in May. I was out with Lance, his fiancée Katherine, and a former workshop participant and friend, Wendi. We went out to a spot suggested by a couple of rangers that afternoon (always talk to rangers, they know the best spots!). The hike involved some wet shoes and a lost filter, but also brought us to an amazing boathouse that I spent most of our time there shooting.

I was the first one to finish up, and I had gotten (if I’m to be honest) kind of bored with the location. But the others were still working, so I started tooling around with this composition instead, framing the shore in the foreground with the water in the middle and two distant boathouses in back, all topped with a beautiful starry sky. I added subtle light painting to the foreground by bouncing the light from a Coast HP7R off my palm and laying the reflected soft illumination along the rocks and grass. A little artificial ambient light did the rest, filling in the shadows of the background.

Then I forgot about the photo for a few days, thinking my real treasure from the night was from my earlier attempts. I remember the moment when I was skimming through thumbnails in Lightroom and I saw this image. “Oh,” I said to myself. “Yeah, that’s the one.”

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Olympic National Park, Washington. Nikon D3s, 15mm Zeiss Distagon f/2.8 lens. 30 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 8000.

In the shoulder season between late summer and early fall, Matt and I were leading two workshops in Olympic, one of my very favorite of the national parks. I got a text from Stacy, another of our former workshop participants, who happens to live in nearby Seattle, alerting us that a high Kp rating meant we should keep our eyes on the northern sky that night. We might see aurora!

Sure enough, as we combed Ruby Beach looking for night compositions, the northern light show started. It was my very first time seeing and photographing an aurora. Moreover, the moon was just about to set on the Pacific horizon, the Milky Way was arching over us, and blue bioluminescence glowed in the crashing waves. It was hard to know which direction to point the camera.

This is one of my favorite photos from 2017 not because I think it’s a spectacular artistic achievement, and not because it accomplishes any hefty technical goal—but because of the memory, because of the experience. With all of that going on in the same night sky, reflected in the shimmer of a recently submerged shore, above my favorite spot to shoot in one of my favorite national parks, how could I be anything but awed? And … did I mention it was my birthday?

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Gabriel Biderman

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Hovenweep National Monument, Utah. Set of two exposures using the Nikon D750 and 14-24mm f/2.8 lens set at 14mm. Sky exposure: 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200. Foreground: 3 minutes, f/2.8 ISO, 1600.

I love that night photography has many challenges. If it is too easy, I don’t want to click. The constant search for pushing my visions yielded some exciting results in 2017!

For the last few years I have been wanting to master the night panorama. It is one of the only solutions for the hero shot of the arching Milky Way. Hovenweep National Monument offered the perfect foreground and location for such a challenge.

The night sky was dark and full of stars but the 90 F temperatures would definitely test what I could get out of my gear, because extreme heat can generate noise in images during longer exposures. My initial tests were showing red flecks at exposures longer than 45 seconds.

I assessed that my pano would need to be made up of six shots, however the sky and foreground were at least three stops apart. My sky exposure was 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 3200 and my foreground was 3 minutes, f/2.8, ISO 1600. I did the series of sky shots first, as the Milky Way was quickly moving out of my composition. The foreground was taking over 6 minutes per shot, because I needed to turn on Long Exposure Noise Reduction.

After I worked on general adjustments to the images, I was pleasantly surprised that Lightroom and Photoshop were able to align the whole batch fairly easily. I attempted a few more panoramas more recently that needed a dedicated panorama program, as Adobe was having a hard time aligning the dark subject matter.

However, I absolutely love the final image as well as the slow, methodical thought and post-processing that needed to happen to make this work.

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Total solar eclipse, Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho. Fuji X-T2, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens 1/15 second, f/22, ISO 400.

The biggest celestial event of the year was definitely the Great American Eclipse.

I was thrilled to be leading a workshop around it in a place that was surrounded by an incredible landscape, Montana’s Centennial Valley. The challenge for most of us attempting to photograph this was that it would be something we would be experiencing for the first time. The window for success was small, because the total eclipse is so fleeting—we wanted to choose the best spot for clear skies and totality. It was easy to find the path of totality, but difficult to predict the weather. Add to that new gear—solar filters which made it difficult to operate our cameras and lenses in normal ways—and it required plenty of practice.

We opted to experience the eclipse in a remote location sandwiched between the Sawtooth Mountains and Beaverhead Mountains. We arrived early and assessed the path of the sun with the PhotoPills app, which was invaluable to scouting and pre-visualizing. Most of us were running two rigs on tripod—a wide shot and a telephoto. The telephoto needed the most attention as it required constantly tracking the sun across the sky.

When the eclipse began, the clicking and adjusting of exposures started to build to a bit of a frenzy. Capturing the corona, diamond ring effect and Bailey’s beads were all high on our list. But the real challenge was controlling our excitement during the moment. It was hard to make the quick adjustments while simultaneously experiencing such a thrilling moment! As we entered full totality, a strange silvery twilight light encompassed us all and a quiet hush fell across the land. The best thing I did during the 2-plus minutes of darkness was take 15 seconds to just stare at the eclipse and take it all in. I’m still searching for the words to explain the experience. The one thing I do know is that I want to be part of it again, so … see you in 2024!

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Lance Keimig

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Westfjords, Iceland. Nikon D750, Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art lens, 5 1/2 minutes, f/5, ISO 800.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time looking at this scene––it’s right in front of the Hotel Djupavik in the Westfjords of Iceland. It’s a special place, one that has a calming energy that’s hard to describe. It’s hard to be stressed or unhappy or angry there. It’s hard not to be taken in by the charm of the place, the people, the peace. So you see, to me this photograph is about much more than a landscape—it’s about a state of mind.

The making of the image was rather unremarkable. The one streetlight in the village illuminates the remains of the pier, 50 yards offshore. It was late in astronomical twilight, with just a hint of glow across the fjord in the western sky. The clouds were dragging slowly across the frame, reluctant to let go of the mountaintops. It was almost as if they were afraid of being carried out to sea. I remember being torn between using a short, high ISO exposure to keep the stars sharp, and a longer one to capture the movement in the clouds.

After making the first trial exposure, I noticed that the streetlight was reflecting off a few of the patches of seaweed, so I had the idea to sweep a light across the foreground to illuminate the rest of the seaweed to try to connect the foreground and middle ground. I had to put a couple of layers of CTO warming gel over my flashlight to match the orange of the sodium glow, but it seemed to work.

To me, a photograph that can transport me back to a time and place is doing its job. I’ve been using this one as my screen saver since I made it during our Westfjords photo tour back in early September, and I’ve been dreaming of making a big print to hang in my home. I think I’ll make that print.

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Alabama Hills, California. Nikon D850, Irix 11mm f/4 Blackstone lens. 15 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 3200.

One of the things that I love about this image is that it’s virtually unrecognizable for what it is. Lady Boot Arch is one of the better-known and certainly among the most distinctive rock formations in California’s Alabama Hills. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see the shape of a woman’s high-heeled, over-the-calf boot––when viewing from the spot where most people first lay their eyes on it. That also happens to be the perspective where most people choose to photograph it from, as I have done on multiple occasions. Being fortunate in that I get to revisit places like this on a fairly regular basis, I often find myself looking for unique vantage points to photograph a familiar subject.

Toward the end of this particular night, after most of the participants had left for bed, I had the chance to pull out one of the new D850 cameras that Nikon had sent to our workshop. I was excited to see what this camera could do. I wanted to try it with the crazy-wide Irix 11mm lens.

Conditions were great. It was cool, but not cold, the air was clear, and the three-quarter moon was over my left shoulder, high in the southwestern sky. I chose a 15-second exposure to keep the stars nice and sharp, as that 45-megapixel sensor likes to show every bit of detail. The challenge was lighting both the foreground and the back of the arch in that short time frame while squeezing between and scrambling over rocks. That was fun.

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Matt Hill

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Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Nikon D750, 15mm Zeiss Distagon f/2.8 lens. 234 images at 22 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400, plus a single exposure at 382 seconds, ISO 2000 for the landscape after moonrise.

My fourth visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park and my second during a Perseids Meteor Shower finally yielded the photograph I’d been dreaming of making. This image is a perfect example of the value of persistence. Climbing the dunes at over 8,000 feet elevation is no easy task, nor is waiting patiently for hours to capture 15 meteors and the gentle kiss of moonlight rising on the dunes.

I’m really proud of the group we had on the workshop—everyone made the trek up the dunes. And everyone set up to capture the glory of this active meteor shower. I’m especially delighted that careful planning put us in the right place at the right time to make a singularly gentle and powerful photograph combining the tallest sand dunes in the U.S., the Milky Way and meteors arcing across the night sky.

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Olympic National Park, Washington. Nikon D750, 35mm f/1.4 Sigma Art lens. 61 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 6400.

I’ve always been drawn to water. It calls to me. Its power to overwhelm anything while holding no strict form has always mystified me. It refracts and reflects light. And it changes everything it touches, such as the sea stacks at Olympic National Park.

Low tide at Rialto Beach gave us an opportunity to use the wet sand as a massive mirror. The setting moon wrapped the left side, and a decisive placement of light painting warmed up the right and brought out the texture of the stalwart stone and tenacious trees. A harmony of color, time and movement keeps this at the top of my list of favorites.

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Tim Cooper

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Alabama Hills, California. Fuji X-T2, 16mm f/1.4 lens. 23 exposures at 4 minutes, f/5.6, ISO 100.

Serendipity is one part luck, one part preparation and one part faith. This image—“Boulder, North Star Ring, Alabama Hills”—is a perfect case in point.

I’ve been enamored with the boulders of the Alabama Hills in the Eastern Sierra of California since the first time I saw them. The texture and unusual formations of these boulders is simply otherworldly. I had the opportunity to return to this area for our November Eastern Sierra workshop with Lance. On the first day of scouting, something sparked in my mind and I began to imagine a round boulder lit from either side, composed underneath the concentric star rings of the north sky. This type of pre-visualization doesn’t happen with every image and it rarely turns out exactly the way I want.

Over the course of the week, I kept searching for the perfect round boulder—one that had a good background to the north, and was positioned such that I could paint it from either side. Finally, on day 4 of the workshop, I stumbled onto the perfect specimen.

The trick here was to stack enough exposures to give the impression of star rings. The moon was nearly full so I was limited to a 4-minute exposure at f/5.6, ISO 100. I set my ShutterBoss intervalometer to shoot 40 frames, knowing my battery would probably run out before draining completely. By the time that happened, the camera was able to capture 23 images, resulting in roughly 1 1/2 hours of cumulative exposure. After replacing the battery, I took several more exposures while experimenting with the light painting. The final image is a Photoshop composite of the 23 frames of star trails and one image with light painting.

For me, this was one of those rare instances where a preconceived idea closely matched the final product.

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Sedona, Arizona. Nikon D4s, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens set at 14mm. Eight exposures at 4 minutes, f/4, ISO 200.

Setting up an image for capturing star trails is always an exercise in anticipation. Which direction will the stars trail? How long will they be? Will they be sparse or thick? For this image taken outside Sedona, Arizona, I had a good idea of the outcome before plunging the shutter. The reason? I had shot from this location before. This is not unusual for me. I’ll often try to improve upon locations I’ve shot in the past. My first attempt at this scene was made with a medium wide-angle lens (24mm on a full-frame camera). That image portrayed the stars moving diagonally, but in only one direction.

For this last visit, I was carrying my venerable Nikon 14mm-24mm f/2.8. The wider (14mm) focal length included much more of the sky. My earlier image contained only the mountain to the right, but with this wider 14mm I was able to include both peaks. Facing southwest allowed me to capture longer trails as stars raced across the sky in the south, as opposed to the shorter trails in the north. The wide view to the east also produced another cool feature: the divergence of star trails. Longer lenses capture the trails all moving in one direction. By facing east and using a super-wide lens I was able to capture the area where the stars begin to move in opposite directions.

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Your Turn!

We’ve shown you our favorite photos from 2017. Now we’d love to see yours! Post your No. 1 favorite night photography image from the past year in the Comments section or on our Facebook page, and tell us a little bit about it.

And then of course the next step—for all of us—is to get back out into the night in 2018 and make something even better!

Tim Cooper is a partner and workshop leader with National Parks at Night. Learn more techniques from his book The Magic of Light Painting, available from Peachpit.

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UPCOMING WORKSHOPS FROM NATIONAL PARKS AT NIGHT