Discover how Zach Nichols created this stunning long exposure shot in our 'How I Got This Picture' interview. We have noticed, if it's not a double exposure, your next favourite has to be nighttime long exposures.

IMAGE TITLE

Fire Tower Starlapse

Black and white long exposure star shot with a black house at night

TECHNICAL INFO

FILM USED

ILFORD HP5+

FORMAT

4x5

CAMERA

Chamonix

LENS

Nikon 90mm f/4.5 Nikkor-SW

EXPOSURE TIME

45 – 50 minutes

OTHER EQUIPMENT

1 Can of Atmosphere

LOCATION

Just outside Hot Springs, South Dakota.

FIRSTLY, TELL US THE STORY BEHIND THIS IMAGE. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO SHOOT IT?

Honestly, it’s not terribly inspiring. I had the right equipment with me, and I knew it was going to be just a beautiful cloudless, windless night. The building itself was striking within the landscape, and I just had a strong pre-visualization of what this shot was going to be and went for it.

DID YOU COME ACROSS ANY CHALLENGES?

The pre-planning for the shot required careful consideration. Some things were successful, others less so. I knew I wanted a few different things. I love my road trip vehicle (Toyota FJ Cruiser) and I knew I had to find a way to get it in the shot. With me, I had a can of atmosphere and I wanted to find a way to utilize that as well. I wanted a strong foreground element and framing mechanism in the trees. I also didn’t want the structure to be completely black but have some life in it instead.

Ultimately I was chuffed to bits on how the trees, stars and structure rendered. Inky blacks, and bright stars, and a strong composition. Those elements I’m very happy with.

I was a little disappointed in how the vehicle plays within the scene. I utilized the can of atmosphere in front of the headlights to bring those out, but I regret not creating more separation between the vehicle and the building. In hindsight, I would have fired up my cell phone flash light and painted some gentle light onto the building behind the vehicle. Either that, or not include it at all. Alas…

WHAT PROCESS DID YOU USE?

4x5 cameras are impossible to focus / compose a shot in the dark. Thus, the process began with setting up the camera and finding the shot in the late afternoon a couple of hours before sunset.

At around this time I realized I had forgotten my cable release at home and I had no other means to hold the shutter open! To remedy this I utilized a piece of tin foil, folded over many times, that I could use as a wedge to force the shutter release open in bulb mode. To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking critically here. I could have just as easily opened the shutter and simply removed the lens cap and returned it when finished, just like in the old days….

Once the sun had set sufficiently and the stars were out in force I removed the dark slide and wedged my improvised shutter release into place and crossed my fingers it would hold.

Next I briefly turned the cab lights in the vehicle on for 5-10 seconds (I would have doubled this in hind sight). After which I depleted my can of atmosphere in front of the car and then turned the headlights on for 5-10 seconds.

Finally I headed up to the balcony level of the structure and turned on the overhead lights, again for around 10 seconds to illuminate the interior.

After that I… waited. For about 50 minutes overall. I then returned to the camera, extra weary of mountain lions (we’d been warned there were multiple sightings recently). I was thrilled to find my improvised shutter release still in place, closed the shutter and returned the dark slide. In addition, I only exposed one negative, and hoped for the best.

HOW DID YOU PROCESS IT?

Pretty standard development. Kodak HC-110, developed at box speed. Kodak stop, and ILFORD Rapid fix.

WHAT ABOUT PRINTING?

Oh boy. This is the painful part and ultimately the reason it’s taken me so long to write this blog. I really wanted to produce a print I was happy with and I just haven’t been able to make it happen. The negative is very thin, and getting the blacks I wanted with the brilliance of the stars, and background sky separation in the greys has been impossible for me to achieve within my level of skill. I’ve attempted prints on ILFORD RC Glossy, Fiber Warmtone Glossy, and even Art 300. I just haven’t gotten it there yet.

This may just be a negative that works better in a hybrid process. Analog capture, digital scan. The scan got me the image I was looking for very quickly and I haven’t been able to replicate it in the darkroom.

 

Image - ©Zach Nichols