Night Photography

Bellagio - Viewed from Caesar's Palace

Caesar's Palace - A new addidtion to Caesar's Forum shopping mall

Caesar's Palace - Christmas 2005

Cloudy Night

Corn Creek Desert National Wildlife Range

Star Trails

Corn Creek Desert National Wildlife Range

Wee Thump Wilderness

Located near Searchlight Nevada, Wee Thump was declared a wilderness area in 2002. A hundred years earlier, Wee Thump was a ranch; you can see remnants of a corral and wind mill in the photo. The name Wee Thump comes from the Paiute language meaning “ancient ones” which refers to Joshua trees. Growing just half an inch per year on average, this particular stand is home to some of the oldest and largest Joshua trees on the planet.

Mojave Desert - World War I Memorial

Mojave National Preserve - About half way between Las Vegas and Las Angeles, the Milky Way emerges in the sku over the Majave desert.

Paris

Paris - Viewed from the Fontana Bar at the Bellagio

Rhyolite, Nevada

Rhyolite is a ghost town located near Death Valley. Shortly after gold was discovered in 1906, the town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere. One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build. A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, a school for 250 children, an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops and even a miner’s union hospital.

Rhyolite, Nevada

Rhyolite is a ghost town located near Death Valley. Shortly after gold was discovered in 1906, the town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere. One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build. A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, a school for 250 children, an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops and even a miner’s union hospital.

Cathedral Gorge State Park, Panaca Nevada

The gorge is located in a long, narrow valley in southeastern Nevada. The cave-like formations and cathedral-like spires are the result of geologic processes from tens of millions of years ago. A photographer’s dream, the park offers stunning views of the scenic canyon. My night photo shows a tower in the gorge that the Civilian Concentration Corp built in the 1930s. The star trails above the tower are concentric around the North Star.

The Neon Museum, Las Vegas, displays more than 100 signs from 180 properties.

Albert Szukalski's Last Supper

Thirty two miles east of Death Valley, twelve plaster sculptures inspired by da Vinci's famed fresco haunt the desert landscape. I had traveled to a nearby ghost town, Rhyolite, to photograph the Perseid Meteor Shower which was to peak on August 12, 2018. Unfortunately, smoke from the California fires obscured the comets, but for brief intervals portions of the Milky Way were visible. I left Rhyolite and moved my gear a short distance to the sculptures. There I made time exposures of the “Last Supper” using a photographic technique called light painting. I shined a flashlight on the 12 figures at various time intervals, distances and angles and made separate exposures of the sky. For you photographers, I shot these photos with a Nikon D 850 mounted on a tripod and a Tamron 14 mm, F 2.8 lens. I made multiple exposures of the sculptures and the sky, and then combined them with Photoshop. I shot the sculptures at ISO 400, 10 seconds, F 5.6, and the sky at ISO 3200, 30 seconds, F 2.8. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/albert-szukalskis-last-supper