An important cellular event, one that cannot be repeated for many years! It was surreal, yesterday, to see astronomical excitement migrate across this country, following the sun and the moon. Harmony, kindness and an overwhelming sense of admiration spread to millions of people. In these often dark times, where many gatherings are steeped in hatred and lack of hope, the light of the sky continues to amaze and lift our hearts. Perhaps, out of the sea of people looking up at the sky, there are a few young people whose ring of fire in the black sky has begun to flash in their hearts and yen to travel beyond the earth, for the ultimate benefit of mankind.
I was prompted to go out and take the photos below, which millions of people have done, with similar results. I played around a bit, lifting some of the shadows, hoping to get a bit of detail in the clouds. Create a simple photo, neither the best nor the worst. But I’m happy to be watching from home. Nikon Z 9, 800mm f6.3 lens, heavy duty Gitzo tripod. Very simple.
All digital technology makes photographing a solar eclipse either easy or difficult, depending on the amount of travel, scouting, and planning done. Some people wore glasses and pointed their iPhones at the sky. Others place powerful lenses on formidable tripods and press the shutter button in high-speed sequences. Others may have tried multiple exposure possibilities. The results are on the internet, a wonderful celebration of our universe.
As complex as it can be in the digital world, this whole lunar photo fest took me back to a story filmed a long time ago, when National Geographic was still National Geographic. A story called “Universe” was rejected by a reputable photographer in the field of 360-degree Geo panoramas. I took it so fast that it was hot. Never mind that I wasn’t the first photographer called. I’ve always looked at these second-banana episodes in my career (and there have been many) as an opportunity to show them why I should have been the first one called. Being the stubbornly competitive type that I am, I figured this was my chance to throw the moon in the ass of my top office mates at Nat Geo.
My dear friend and frequent collaborator at Nat Geo is Bill Douthitt, who, as I always say, knows more than anyone else out there. Because the first photographer pulled the plug late, time passed and Bill was only able to sign a contract for 12 weeks of work. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t, operating on this scale. He later called the story “The Death March of the Universe.”
And, strangely enough, the moon photo is in fact the main photo. I convinced the very friendly staff at Double Keck in Hawaii to weld the metal frame for me and I covered it with parchment paper. They then pointed 20-meter-long mirrors at the moon very closely. (In planetary terms, the moon is a jump, a skip, and maybe not even a jump in distance.) This powerful tool showed off the moon in explosive detail. I placed a worker in front of the sphere with a focusing device. Presto, main photo. It took the better part of the day to selectively illuminate the rest of the range’s cavernous interior. A story for another time.
Visual ingenuity prevails in these works. Existing tools simply did not exist at the time. You have to make a choice and crush it. For example, anyone can capture the silhouette of the Very Large Plate seen below with a tripod and panoramic camera. I could have made that choice. But chances are, this has been done before. My theory for the location is to lock it with something sure to burn, then run off the Cliff of Madness with a bold idea.
If you want something different, something unusual, something to stir the collective administrative stupor in the upper floors of NG headquarters, you must take on the challenge of lighting up a most of the whole damn thing.
This ambitious effort required two days and a truckload of lights. Luckily, it was published. Is it worth it? Well, for me, on a personal level, “put this in your bag.” Currency? Ummm. I hardly sleep to write these stories, day and night. I get paid $500 a day. As they say, the challenge is in your bones and don’t be rejected or discouraged by the numbers.
And, all these shenanigans almost got me a cover. I wanted to show the continuous effort of a solitary individual in gazing at the night sky. Enthusiasts study the universe with a home-based telescope, not one worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore. Had to find a difficult location with a clear view of the night sky. And a man with a telescope, silhouetted against said night sky.
Now you can’t have someone standing there all night. At least on an editorial level. We had a very senior second assistant. I stood him up against a 4×8 piece of plywood. Then stuck a magic marker to the ruler and drew his shape. (I had him stand as if he were working with a telescope.) Then I composited his figure and spray painted it black. Make a base for it and then go into the yard.
I placed the flash behind the hill, and a pop-up flash illuminated him and the scope. And closed the shutter on the three cameras I was working on. That of course means tonight’s effort will produce a total of three frames. Then put in the cutout. And I opened the shutters again. Sleep in the car that night and set my alarm clock to three different time periods, thus giving me a three-stop window in the night sky. These brackets are spread over about six hours. And it was a candidate for the cover, but I lost to the photo of a genetically modified pig. Sigh. These are the slings and arrows of a photography career.
Above is the movie. However, when you demonstrate a certain amount of endurance and pursue large, inanimate objects in dark, cold places, Geography always asks you to do it again. This time with digital!
This made a photo like the one below a lot easier.
About 20-30,000 watts of second light, a 175′ crane, and about 20 minutes spent in the sweet spot taking photos before the mirror went black, facing the rapidly darkening Eastern sky behind me. Digital confirmation is very handy here. I had to constantly radio the team from my crane position. The little warm glow at the bottom right of the lens is courtesy of the amazingly talented photographer and Brooklyn resident Drew Gurian who worked with me on this story. It is in some shots, not in others, due to inconsistencies in radio triggers at the time.
Ah, Digital Speedlights and Nikon! For comparison, the photo below is a walk in the park. Six flashing lights, if memory serves.
Did I mention the silly ideas above? Sigh. An essential part of the story is to somehow keep in mind different methods of spatial imagination, such as panchromatic, near-infrared visible, etc. So, I have chosen three ways of representing The most graphic representation I could find of the nebula, I believe, and thought it would be “interesting” and informative for readers to project them onto a screen in a place famous for its spectacular night sky. and remarkable ancient stone formations. Damn it.
So in terms of exposure, there are a number of areas that need to be addressed. The foreground is the earth, the background is the sky. Totem Poles (rock formations) at a distance in scale and depth. Front projector. And lighting equipment, generators, coolers, Coleman stoves, Dinty Moore stew in cans, sleeping bags, etc. We pointed three cameras at the scene, in the direction of the famous rocks, but what’s important It should be noted that in the general direction of the sky where the nebula in the image resides, millions of miles away. Small but great spot for captions.
Also tried this view. It had been a long few nights in the desert. There are a lot of flaws in every attempt here, but NG has published the above. Again, no one had actually seen this type of image before. I owe a huge vote of thanks Dan Bergeron, a local photographer based on the West Coast. His job was to lightly paint Totem Pole, which he did with a generator and some 2400ws mounted on his pickup truck. I’ll open the shutters and give him a radio call to blow up.
The galaxy continues to fascinate us.
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