I find it quite the challenge to make a popular location “my own.” I don’t tend to blaze new trail finding never before seen subjects. I trend towards shooting where others have been. This might make my art a bit derivative… which is true. So, I tend to try different things to make captures from these locations my own.
In this case, Raven’s Nest as far as I can tell was popularized by Adam Woolworth — he’s a fantastic night Astro/landscape photographer, if you didn’t know. The more common shooting location for this overlook is about 10 meters left of where this image was captured. I like this because it’s different from what I know can be shot there. And, it’s a technical challenge getting all the small parts to work which includes a focus stack along with all the Astro noise reduction captures. Oh, it’s also a thing to have to coordinate with complete strangers doing the working the same area so everyone comes away happy.
The problem with shooting at night when others are around is the dark. You can’t see anything without bumping into something. The solution is turn on a light. There are two problems with turning on the light. First, It’s likely if you can see this light so can anyone else nearby see the light and therefore distrupt their picture taking, if not ruin exposures. Second, most folks bring bright white lights out in the field. Turning one of them on to see what you’re going to bump into and sure way to ruin your night vision. Red lights are much better in this respect. Unfortunately, I am the rare person in the field using a red light.
Cheers
Tom
