The Traveling Widower

Category: Photography techniques

Arches & Astrophotography – Random Thoughts
April 24th, 2026

Time for one of those mind dumps of all the odd thoughts that have crossed my mind this past week.

Astrophotography

I’ve never been more than just mildly interested in astronomy – I like looking at starry skies, and can pick out one or two constellations, but I rarely go out of my way to look for comets, satellites, eclipses or any other astronomical event. The same goes for night sky photography – I’ve never been able to even get a good shot of a full moon, and have never made much of an effort to learn how to do that. Last summer was my first attempt, when I spent an evening at a (mostly) dark sky state park (Mitchell Lake) up in the Sierra, to photograph the Milky Way. I did some Google/Youtube research, and made a few reasonably good shots without really understanding what I was doing. So when I saw the workshop description in a Mike’s Camera e-mail, I thought it might be nice to get some education and hands-on experience, in a National Park that is on my bucket-list to visit. Here’s my thoughts on this rather specialized category of photography, after my five day deep dive:
- This is probably the most technical genre of photography that I’ve been exposed to so far (yes, another intended pun). You really need to understand low-light photography, the relationships between ISO, aperture and shutter speed, how images are stored on sensors, and all the bells and whistles that your camera has and how to use them. You cannot just set your camera on fully automatic, and hope for the best, even with the new AI features in the latest offerings from the camera manufacturers. Someone asked me what my Kelvin settings were….I knew at that point that I was in trouble.
- Adobe Lightroom (or an equivalent image processing software package) is mandatory once you have captured an image, no matter how good your camera is. And, you need to have more than just basic experience with the software to produce anything worthwhile unless you are really lucky. Example of luck: a passing car light painted the Balanced Rock as I was shooting. Came out pretty nice.
- It’s really incredibly dark in designated dark sky locations – you need to be able to work your camera and tripod without light. And you need to be comfortable with walking down potentially rough paths with minimal lighting from red-light headlamps. If you have balance issues (I do – really awful neuropathy), a hiking stick will be a must – it is easy to lose your balance when you are standing in the dark, and it is easy to trip and fall even when you are simply shuffling in place. Unfortunately, one person in our group did take a fall one night – she did some damage, but was able to continue on that evening, and for the rest of the workshop. A dedicated photographer!
- And not only will it be pitch-black dark, depending on the time of year and what you are focusing on (ex. Milky Way, meteor showers, etc.) you will likely be up way past your usual bedtime. Get used to staying up until the wee hours of the morning, and learning how to nap for a few hours during the day. You never really catch up on sleep until the trip is over.
- Another thought struck me the other day, related to the dependency on post processing tools such as Adobe Lightroom. There is a great deal of artistic creativity involved in generating those beautiful star and Milky Way photographs you see in magazines and galleries. You really do not get that with the naked eye, at least in the two locations where I’ve recently seen the Milky Way. So much depends on the sensor in the camera, and how the camera stores all that information down to the pixel level. Our eyes and brain cannot do what the camera and computer can do to process that information. When you process the image with Adobe Lightroom, you are adding (or removing) colors, adding brightness to the stars, accentuating the colors and brightness of the Milky Way core, and even bringing out some of the detail of the foreground, which is completely dark to the naked eye, and underexposed in the image. Some post-processing is considered kosher in club competitions and contests – but it just seems like the processing required to make a starry sky shot really pop is pushing the limits.
Some thoughts on the Workshop

I’ve done a few hands-on photography trips before, but these were all one day and done, not multi-day with significant travel requirements like this one. I was not sure what to expect, but this definitely exceeded all expectations both known and unknown. The trip was offered through Mike’s Camera, but organized and run by a photographer who has his own workshop company, specializing in all aspects of night-time, low-light photography. I do not normally advertise for anyone, but this one was special:

Image 10 Photographic – www.image10photographic.com, run by Craig Wennersten

He is a veritable fountain of knowledge when it comes to low light photography, and works closely with each member of the group, no matter what their experience level is with their equipment. He plans out each evening, based on his knowledge of the area, the weather conditions, and from mapping out the times the stars will be positioned at each location to get the best photographs possible. Craig runs workshops for the Milky Way, Northern Lights and other astrophotography experiences. Check his Web site out if you are interested in a great learning experience.

OK, end of advertisement. I’m not getting paid for it – just thought he was a great guy and with all the tens of viewers I have on this blo, it might be nice to give him some free blogosphere visibility.

What was really different for me, as I mentioned in a previous blog, was to be on a trip where the focus was entirely on photography, with a bunch of fellow ‘gear heads’. The National Geographic/Lindblad trips typically have a number of semi-serious photographers, and their is always a NG photographer on board who are more than willing to provide guidance and advice – but this workshop was a non-stop learning experience for me. I now have a much improved understanding of many of the features of my Sony A7R5, as well as more than just the basics on setting ISO, shutter speed and F-stop for low lighting situations.

We also spent a lot of time discussing (and using) Adobe Lightroom Classic, for post processing. Craig has a very detailed workflow for processing Milky Way images, which he demonstrated (using one of my shots) in one of our afternoon sessions, and then shared a document which describes each step of the workflow in detail. Absolutely invaluable information. It is absolutely amazing what you can do to a RAW image with this application, especially once you gain some expertise with all the features.

As an example of novice vs. expert, here is my first attempt at post processing (top), versus what Craig was able to do in a few minutes (bottom). Mine was OK, but his really brought out the color and increased the contrast between the dark sky and the stars.

Moab and Arches National Park

I was really impressed with Moab – yeah, it’s extremely touristy with lots of tacky souvenir shops and 4-wheel adventure tour companies, but then there are lots of really good restaurants and brew pubs (can’t say that from experience though), multiple ice cream/gelato shops (tried four of them, yum), and lots of nice hotels. There’s even a parking lot for food trucks. This is usually the kind of place I try to avoid, but I kind of liked the place.

It seems like every time I go to a national park that I’ve never been to before, I forget all the other parks I’ve been to and it becomes my new favorite. This time was no different. I spent the better part of seven days, day and night, wandering through ANP, and did not have the time to explore much beyond the parking lots. I also missed out on sunrises, which should be spectacular with all the red rock formations, and would love to see more sunsets as well. I will not cross this off my bucket list yet – I really do want to return again. But spend more time when the sun is out.

Highs and Lows

Best Day Overall – probably the Monday everyone else left. I did not enjoy being alone, but I was able to see a lot of the park during the day, did some hiking, had time for a dip in the spa, and had perfect weather for my solo Milky Way shoot that night.

Worst Mistake – not checking out my selected setup spot at the Sand Dune Arch. I should have noticed that the two trail signs would wind up in my photos. All I had to do was find a spot a 20 feet away in either direction. Duh. Fortunately, I can sort of hide the signs with post processing. A close second was my major, time wasting goof when we were shooting for a star trace, sitting in the car for an hour without confirming that my camera was actually taking photos.

Best Arch – well, I did not see them all, but I thought the Double Arch was the most impressive. I’d like to have seen that at sunrise or sunset, and perhaps done a night session there as well. Maybe next time.

Best Ice Cream – tough choice, the four I tried were all good. The Moab Coffee Shop had the best gelato though. The Spoke Center restaurenat had excellent ice cream (Orange Creamsicle).

Worst Conditions – Friday night – the sky was clear, but the temperatures dropped down way past my threshold. That was my other mistake – I prepared for rain, not for cold weather. I wound up buy a set of thermals and even with those extra layers, I had to bail out before the last session. I was numb.

Best Hike – that’s easy since I only did a few. The Landscape Arch trail. Great views along the way, and a nice workout. I really wanted to do the length of Park Avenue, but ran out of time and energy.

Best Milky Way Location – another tough choice. I’ll take the Balanced Rock as my favorite since it’s a narrow, impressive feature and you can get the MW centered above it.

Good Health News – no cardiac issues at all!

Not so good health news – Hiking during the day on even paths is OK, as long as I’m careful. Rock scrambling is a problem for me now – I had to be very careful in the Double Arch area, and was too wobbly around the Garden of Eden to go very far. And standing still in the dark is a problem – I had to hold on to the tripod at times. Neuropathy sucks.

Summary – Overall, a really great trip – fantastic scenery, fun group of people, excellent trip lead and a great learning experience.

And if you made it this far reading this post, here are a bunch of curated photos.
April 26, 2026
Solo Traveling Again

April 20th, 2026

Monday was my first “free” day since I arrived in Moab last Wednesday. The workshop ended on Sunday evening, and the entire group was heading home in the morning, leaving me with two full days before I left Moab. The Sunday photo session ended relatively early (2:00AM), so I was able to get some sleep, and even made it to the hotel breakfast for a change. Not that the breakfast was worth waking up for – my only complaint with this hotel. I decided to just take it easy in the morning – work on photos, do some laundry, just relax a bit, before heading off to the park. I really wanted to do some hiking and see the park in daylight, but also did not want to kill myself either. I was worn out, and still wanted to do one more Milky Way shoot that night – the weather was supposed to be perfect. And I’m a glutton for punishment. Always have been and probably always will.

I headed out to the park around noon, and planned to check out the very far end of the main road – I also wanted to visit the location for my solo shoot that evening (Sand Dune Arch) which I had been to only once, in the dark, and had never ventured out of the parking lot. After that, I wanted to see two other arches which required some hiking – Skyline and Landscape.

The park was relatively empty compared to the weekend – I guess everyone clears out on Sunday, and the crowds grow towards the weekend with traffic from Colorado and Utah. I really enjoyed just driving through the park without rushing, stopping at some pullouts to just enjoy the fantastic scenery. The Park Avenue trail, which I had ventured out into my first night in Moab, is beautiful as are the pullouts for the Courthouse Towers. I decided to hold off taking photos until the next day. Never a good idea. Carpe diem, so they say.

I eventually made it to the Sand Dune Arch parking lot, which was packed. The trail to the arch starts a short distance from the parking lot, and runs through a narrow slot canyon between two huge fins of rock. Most of the trail is like a nice, sandy beach so of course there were gobs of families, with kids playing in the sand. Fun to watch. The arch is rather small, and easy to miss, except for all the people doing selfies. I made note of where I wanted to set up my tripod that night, near the base of that trail so I could get the view of the sky with the big fin rocks as a foreground. I should have noticed one important feature though, and planned out in more detail the best placement for my tripod – more on that later. Hint – it’s much easier to scope out a site in daylight than in the dark.

My next stop was the Skyline Arch, also a bit crowded though I think the rocky trail turned some of the less agile visitors away. This was a good confidence builder for me – I was really having balance issues walking around in the dark all week. It was much easier hiking during the day, not lugging a tripod in one hand, one hiking stick in the other, and trying to stay upright without being able to see much in front of me with just a glow from my red headlamp. I had little if any difficulty negotiating this trail. And the arch was quite nice.

My final stop for the day was at the end of the road – the Devils Garden, which has the trailhead for the longest arch in the park, Landscape Arch (plus quite a few others). The campground and picnic areas are located there as well. The trail was only 3 miles round trip, but I wore my camera backpack anyway,to hold water and a snack. I looked like a serious hiker. The trail was packed gravel the entire way, easy walking, but also had a couple of relatively steep hills to climb – a good workout and test for my cardiac issues. No problemo! Like most of the older hikers on the trail, I did take some breathers (or pulse reduction breaks) at the top of each hill, but I still made pretty good time getting to the arch. I’d grade that one a ‘Meh’. Not that exciting. But it was a nice hike, a good workout with some great views so I’m glad I did it.

Since I was planning another late night outing, I headed back to the hotel to relax after this hike, maybe take a dip in the pool/spa, and have some dinner. The PhotoPills application (I’ll discuss in another post) indicated that the Milky Way would peak over the Sand Dune Arch fins around 3AM, so I intended to take a long nap before leaving for the park again.

Alone in the dark

It was a bit strange driving through the park at 11:30PM by myself after four nights of being with a group. It was even stranger finding a place to set up my tripod on my own, and then standing there in a very dark, isolated spot – there was not much road traffic at all. I could keep my headlight on if I wanted since there was nobody else around, but it was still a little scary. But, the weather was warm, and the sky was perfectly clear so I just focused on setting up my camera, and tried not to think about mountain lions, coyotes, or other wild creature wandering around in the dark. I had a lot of time to kill, so I went back to the car for a while to listen to the radio, and snooze for a bit. I really missed having people to talk to. After an hour, I headed back to my tripod to start taking photos.

Just about the time the MW had “moved” (the earth is moving not the Milky Way) over the rock formation, a horde of cars pulled into the parking lot, and a large group started working their way towards me – this was another astrophotography workshop, likely the same ones that hogged the site the other night. Fortunately, they just passed me by without saying a word, and set up out of sight further down the trail. Not a very friendly group. The trip lead did make some comment that I was in a lousy spot.

Regardless of his comment, I continued shooting for another hour or so, checking every 5 minutes to view the relationship of the MW to the rock formation – it changes very quickly, and I wanted to make sure I got the core of the Milky Way in a few of the shots. I did notice by accident though, that there was a problem where I had decided to place my tripod. I was pretty much right next to the trail sign. Hard to see that in the dark – that’s where I should have been more careful in my daytime preparation. I checked the next day, and the sign does show up in the foreground as a rectangular outline. Not everyone will notice that, but I’m sure a competition judge will. My bad.

After a few hours of standing pretty much in the same place, I packed up the tripod and very carefully walked back down the trail to the parking lot – I was nice enough to use the dim red light so as not to impact the other group. I shot a couple of more photos from the parking lot (see below), loaded up the car, and pulled out of the lot with my dims on…it was the right thing to do.

So that was the official end of my introduction to astrophotography – I have a lot of photos to process now, and that will keep me busy at home for a while. I’ll do a trip summary post once I have a few images worth sharing (I included two below – first attempts).

Peace.

April 22, 2026