Finding a New and Unique Nightscape

The above photo in the Upper Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef National Park was the result of being able to find a new and unique astro-landscape foreground location.

Despite the phrase, "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), creative subjects and unique locations can still be found for your nightscape photography subjects — it just takes some research and being constantly open to new ideas. I've found that if I let my friends, and especially my wife, know that I'm looking for new subjects and locations to photograph that I'm constantly flooded with ideas. While the vast majority of these tips turn out not be conducive to my genre of photography, some have become real gems.

A recent interview about this subject. While in Idaho Falls last week, I was asked by a 12 year-old girl "What was the favorite thing you have photographed?" That young girl was YouTube celebrity, Emmy Eaton, host of "7 Questions with Emmy". Emmy has been doing this since she was seven. She's been a contributor to The Drew Barrymore Show, and has interviewed hundreds of famous people, including Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs), Miss America 2025, and Donny Osmond.

Here's Emmy's 5-minute interview with me. I didn't know the 7 questions beforehand, so my responses are totally spontaneous.

I mention this interview because the title photograph was the answer to Emmy's 4th question, "What was the favorite thing you have photographed?" Those spires are called, "Mom, Pop and Henry", and the Great Rift intersecting the spires is an amazing portion of our Milky Way Galaxy that aligns with our Earth's horizon — if you can plan your shot in the early morning hours, during the early spring months (in the Northern Hemisphere).

Remote and dark skies. Of Utah's five national parks, Capitol Reef is one of my favorites because it is the least visited park and not overrun by tourists like Arches and Zion. Because of its remote location, it (and Canyonlands) have some of the darkest skies in the world. Less than 5% of Capitol Reef's visitors ever venture into the remote northern half of the park, which requires 4-wheel drive, high-clearance vehicles. Those spires are in the Upper Cathedral Valley of that northern region of the park.

My original research showed that the 5th Fremont Expedition that started out in 1853, had camped near this location in January 1854. Daguerreotype photographer, Solomon Carvalho, took a photo of their encampment, just as it started to snow. Shortly after, due to heavy snow and a series of mishaps, they nearly starved to death and eventually had to eat their horses. Upon returning to civilization, an artistic engraving was made of Carvalho's daguerreotype so it could be printed and published. The actual photo was later lost in the Chicago fire.

Putting the pieces together. In 1991, officials at the National Park Service noticed that this feature in Capitol Reef NP was the same one illustrated from the Fremont Expedition. Pioneers and local ranchers in the area had named the features, "Mom, Pop and Henry" — Henry being the smallest spire.

I knew these type of features were most prominent in the Upper Cathedral Valley, but it still took several days of "boots-on-the-ground" to find the exact location, and then lots of planning to find the right Milky Way alignment date.

The discovery and planning process for finding new nightscape foreground subjects and figuring out the best time to photograph them with the Milky Way (or other heavenly features) can be half the fun in your nightscape photography adventure. The Planit Pro app has some amazing features that are not available in PhotoPills (my goto app for Milky Way alignment planning). If you are not proficient in Planit Pro, Mike Shaw has some free tutorials, and a custom service that can help you in your planning.

I more recently located and photographed another lesser known geological feature, with the help of a friend and a Navajo guide; however, I have yet to publish the photos from this location, so that will be the subject of another post.