Here are a few variations of the view from underneath the Big Bridge that passes over Cricket Creek in Boone County, Arkansas. This one features the Milky Way with some extreme light painting of the bridge structure using a ProtoMachine LED2 flashlight.

This image was taken using available light and consists of 12 exposures, each at 4 minutes/ f4 / ISO 400, for a total of 48 minutes of star trailing.

And finally, this is a single 10 second exposure at f2.0 / ISO 6400 to capture pinpoint stars, using only available light. The Big Bridge is located near my home, so I often go there to capture images to test new equipment or techniques. Its interesting that the same subject can capture a different feeling each time I go and shoot it.

Because I am downsizing to a smaller house, I am once again offering some photographic printing supplies at a tremendous discount. I paid more than $700.00 for everything listed here, but you can have it all for the LOW, LOW price of $100. The only catch is that you must pay cash and pick these items up within two weeks from my home located near Omaha, Arkansas.

First come, first serve. Hurry, I will be listing this on Craig’s List, Harrison On-Line Yard Sale, and the Branson Ultimate Yard Sale tomorrow afternoon, Thursday 4/19/18.

If interested, email me at hal@mitzenmacher.net

Stretcher Bars

Breathing Color Gallery Fir Pre-Notched Stretcher Bars (1 1/2″ Depth x 1 3/8″ Width)

18″ Length – 40 Pieces – Paid $62.04
24″ Length – 40 Pieces – Paid $84.92

16″ Length – 90 Pieces – Paid $130.68
20″ Length – 90 Pieces – Paid $159.39

Canvas Stretching Pliers

Generic Chrome Stretching Pliers (left) – Paid approx. $15.00
Pit Bull Canvas Wrap Stretcher (right) – Paid $170.00

Canvas Print Varnish & Supplies

1 Gallon – Breathing Color Timeless Print Varnish – Gloss Finish – Paid $89.95
10 each – Contractors Foam Rollers – paid approx. $8.00
3 each – Roller Handles – paid approx. $6.00
3 each – Roller Pans – paid approx. $3.00

The Marshall Point Lighthouse is located near Port Clyde in the state of Maine. Although the grounds are usually closed at night, I was able to photograph the light while attending a workshop led by Lance Keimig who runs the Night Skye Workshops. The workshop was a part of the highly respected Maine Media Workshops and College, based out of Camden, Maine.

I was recently asked about the techniques used to create this image, so I thought I would post the answer here. This was created using a blend of two exposures. The first was a very long exposure of 8 minutes/f8/ISO 800. This exposure yielded the clean, noise-free overall image that also produced the star trails of a length I find pleasing to the eye.

While an exposure of 8 minutes produced a nice clean image, it also grossly overexposed the actual light at the fresnal itself. To correct this deficiency, I took a series of shorter exposures, this time judging the exposure of the fresnal itself. After several tries, I determined that an exposure of 30 seconds/f8/ISO 100 produced a good likeness of the fresnel portion of the light.

When it came time to construct the final image, I placed both the long, 8 minute exposure and the short, 30 second exposure into layers using Photoshop. From there it was a simple matter to blend the properly exposed fresnel into the overexposed fresnel of the long exposure.

Once the blending was accomplished, I used the power of Lumenzia (a luminosity masking plugin for Photoshop developed by Greg Benz) to do the final editing of the image until I achieved results that I felt was satisfactory.

The equipment used for this image: Sony A7Rii | Sigma 20mm f1.4 Art Series lens | MIOPS Smart Trigger | Benro Tripod | Flare Buster lens shade