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Dan Zafra's picture

Star Quest

The US east coast is one of the most challenging areas for shooting stars and the Milkyway since it is one of the places with more light pollution on earth. Thankfully a few spots remain dark, like Acadia National Park.

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13 Comments

I'm blown away by your technique here. It's so so so hard to make a night scene look perfectly dark while not being too black. I find it easy to go overboard and kill the night mood or make it too underexposed. This is absolutely spot on.

Thanks Ryan for selecting my image and for your nice words. I am truly obsessed about finding the perfect balance in night shots between having a nocturnal atmosphere while preserving the important details. As you said, there is a fine line and it’s very easy to go wrong, the only solution is just practice and sending too many files to the trash! :)

I can't believe it. I've photographed that same scene in the morning at Otter Cliffs. Were you able to walk out there in the dark without falling. When a group of us were photographing in 2016, we had a large photographer who tripped on a rock and fell face first. That is a really good shot. Who would have thought about doing an astro-shot there?

Thanks Ed for your nice comment! It was certainly tricky walking over the boulders at night, especially over the slippery ones close to the water, I walked very slowly and guess I was lucky I didn’t fall off! I spent all night there until sunrise and it was a beautiful experience. Skies are incredibly dark in Acadia : )

Wow. Stones in the foreground. So original.

They are actually ostrich eggs. This photo was selected as Photo of the day by Fstoppers for some reason and originality was key! ​Thanks for your comment! ;)

Spectacular detail. It feels like I'm sitting right there on the beach.

Thanks Jordan!! It's a real compliment considering it's a night image!

beautiful

Thanks very much for stopping by ;)

Interesting edit, very real actually! Love the composition as well. Good job man.

Thanks Anthony! Glad you like the capture and edit! :)

Dan, I have been looking at your photography! I think it is really amazing. I just started getting into photography and my photos do not look anything like yours. How can I make my photographs look like these?! They are amazing. Any tips will help