Night Photography of Places and Vistas: To Start, a Diner Appearing from the Darkness

How about it?


Here's a diner in Whately Massachusetts.

Here's a beach in Balito, South Africa!

The main road through Monument Valley at night under a waxing quarter moon:

Amazing shot Jack, the start trails are disturbing here, this light road is really interesting in middle of nothing !

Jack and Jerome,

I like the sense of surprise and awe in your pictures. coming over a hill or around a bend and seeing a place appear from the darkness is a thrill as one feels connected to a civilization. OTOH, the trails of the stars put us in our place!

Thanks both of you for adding these unique images.

Asher

Nicolas Genette said:

Amazing shot Jack, the start trails are disturbing here, this light road is really interesting in middle of nothing !

Click to expand...

Thanks Nicolas,

I agree the image is kind of a conundrum --- this long road in the middle of a vaguely familiar "nowhere," going nowhere of obvious interest, yet there are obviously more than a few vehicles using it. The star trails are a but of a conundrum too --- there are more of them than necessary to add the time of day relevance to the image and so many as to be distracting, yet that is a "real" capture and thus an accurate quantity for that night sky. Do I clone some out? Chop in a more dramatic sky? I am more of a traditionalist and don't tend to do that kind of gross editing...

Asher Kelman said:

Jack and Jerome,

I like the sense of surprise and awe in your pictures. coming over a hill or around a bend and seeing a place appear from the darkness is a thrill as one feels connected to a civilization. OTOH, the trails of the stars put us in our place!

Thanks both of you for adding these unique images.

Asher

Click to expand...

Thanks Asher,

I agree the star trails are important to the image, but also agree with Nicolas that they are somehow disturbing. In the end, I think the image without them is rather plain with only a mildly interesting "road to nowhere" as a subject. But I think it is the disturbing nature of the star trails that makes this image work; it pushes us out of our comfort zone so we continue to look at it.

@Asher, Thank you for the kind words. I'm not experienced in night photography, but I thought I'd give it a try!

@Jack

Well put. The two elements together are what makes this photo work, though the time of day reference kind of gets me. Great Image!