Moab Utah. Arches
I was in Moab last week working on a shoot which involved a lot of night photography. My timing was pretty good since the moon was just strong enough to add some light to the desert, but not overpower the stars in the sky. The desert in the Moab area is spectacular for night photography, with minimal light pollution. But depending on your angle, you might see some glow from Moab or even Grand Junction. But are city lights and clouds bad for night shots? Not necessarily.
In the image above you can see a warm glow in the bottom of the frame. These are city lights reflected off some clouds in the distance. While this glow might not be pure clean nature, I love the contrast it provides with the blue glow of the night sky. If you search the web, some of the best night images have beautiful reflected city lights in the shot. So even though you may not want this glow in your image, you may like the end result.
I recently was writing a story for one of the photography magazines, and mentioned there are a “thousand reasons not to go” out and shoot. I know I can think of a hundred reasons not to grab my camera and go out and shoot. But you are never going to get ‘the shot’ unless you are out shooting. Don’t let the winter blues slow you down, go out and shoot!