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Moab Maiden Night Photography

Friday, September 23, 2011

After work on Friday, Amanda and I headed down to Moab to meet a few friends at the Moab Brewery for a birthday party and some burgers. After dinner we hiked up to the Moab Maiden in the dark so that I could attempt some night photography there again. Here’s a few of my photos from the night.

This is probably my favorite photo from Friday. I was able to frame the shot so that the Big Dipper was right over the large boulder containing the petroglyph.

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Under the Dipper by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

This one didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, so I guess I will have to try again sometime in the future.

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Milky Way Princess by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

I have taken a photo of the Moab Maiden with star trails before, but I wanted to attempt the shot again. I think this one turned out better than the last, but I’m still not entirely happy with it. Either way, we had a nice evening watching the sky. We even spotted a few shooting stars.

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Maiden Star Trails by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr

>> Moab Maiden Night Photo Gallery

4 Comments

  1. Tom Warren
    Tom Warren April 20, 2012

    My friend you have amazing talents – Utah is a beautiful state and I love visiting. I have seen the Moab Maiden – yet I do not have skills in capturing stars. How do you photograph stars without any movement? Are you choosing I high ISO and then light painting your subject?

    • Randy Langstraat
      Randy Langstraat April 20, 2012

      To capture stars without any movement you need to use a very wide lens and keep your exposure under 30 seconds. In order to do that I needed to use a high ISO and I did bounce some reflected light onto the petroglyph (direct light was too harsh and washed out the petroglyph).

  2. Tom Warren
    Tom Warren April 24, 2012

    THANKS FOR THE INSIGHT. I WISH YOU WELL IN YOUR PURSUIT.

  3. Tom Warren
    Tom Warren May 16, 2012

    Hi Randy

    Just an update – I visited the Maiden last Wednesday night prior to the moon appearing. I shot some rather nice shots with fill flash and the dusk afterglow. However, when I set up for light painting and stars, I was greeted by bats swooping down on me – they may have been attracted to either my 3 days of campsite musk or the red LED lamps I use. Unfortunately, they were relentless that evening and I packed up early to escape. It was a surreal experience as they thumped by head continuously. Maybe I should have pulled a Peter Lick and kept shooting. My Best to You -and if you would like to see my shots – what best to get in contact with you? Tom

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