The Bank Had Seen Better Days by taffy

The Bank Had Seen Better Days

This was taken at Rhyolite on our last night in the Mojave Desert of Death Valley on the photography workshop that @jyokota and I attended this past week. Rhyolite is a ghost town that was a perfect setting for light painting and astrophotography. There was a lot of ambient light from a building in the distance, lighting the exterior. A very quick pan with a light lit the interior enough to give the building more definition. The line is probably a plane but I like to think of it as a shooting star! The shot called out for a six word story.
Sheralee Stoll pointed out that we can see Comet Lovejoy -- very exciting! It's the little green speck toward the top just left of center and it has a tail if you look closely. I didn't know I'd captured it until she pointed it out as I was so focused on getting the lighting right on the building!

Check out Junko's shot from an earlier night shot where we did light painting with a tree in total darkness - http://365project.org/jyokota/365/2015-01-16

For those who were asking about which workshop: http://james-brandon.com/workshops/ (co-led by James Brandon and Brian Matiash)
Such a fantastic pov. Instant fav!
January 21st, 2015  
What an incredible opportunity. Came out amazing. Fav!
January 21st, 2015  
Awesome shot
January 21st, 2015  
Fabulous shot, great PoV -fav
January 21st, 2015  
Stunning, Taffy! A big FAV!
January 21st, 2015  
Stunning !!
January 21st, 2015  
Great shot
January 21st, 2015  
Lee
Fabulous shot. Fav.
January 21st, 2015  
So amazing
January 21st, 2015  
Awesome
January 21st, 2015  
Wow, I have always wanted to do a shot like this. It looks amazing. And what a location.
January 21st, 2015  
Fabulous silhouette with the starry sky.
January 21st, 2015  
Love this!
January 21st, 2015  
Awesome shot and POV. Who knew there's so many stars.
January 21st, 2015  
Fantastic shot. I love the ruined building against the night sky. I wonder why the town was called Rhyolite as this is a volcanic rock?
January 21st, 2015  
wonderful !
January 21st, 2015  
Fantastic shot, Taffy.
January 21st, 2015  
Wow, just look at those stars!
January 21st, 2015  
Beautiful!
January 21st, 2015  
Incredible shot
January 21st, 2015  
Love this Taffy, a really stunning image FAV!
January 21st, 2015  
Stellar shot, composition
January 21st, 2015  
such a stunning location................superb star shot.....there are so many!
January 21st, 2015  
You are so good now at everything you try! This is outstanding for a night photo! fav
January 21st, 2015  
Beautiful! FAV!
January 21st, 2015  
@maggiemae You are too kind!! I had two days of practice with a lot of help to get to the point of having the right settings and know what to do in lightroom to adjust for color. That was one of the areas that was a big learning curve for me. I feel confident now, though!
January 21st, 2015  
Fascinating shot. It remembers to me a little to our old town of Belchite...
January 21st, 2015  
Fantastic, the stars are amazing! Fav
January 21st, 2015  
Oh wow, this is so amazing. To have the ruined building in the front just adds to the wonder of the sky. Fav
January 21st, 2015  
Sam
Awesome! FAV!
January 21st, 2015  
Such a fantastic composition Taffy with the lit up building in the foreground against that breathtaking view of the stars in the night sky. How lucky you were to see this and you put your two days of tuition to get the best result. The course sounds perfect in every way - I have checked out the web site and it looks wonderful. Sounds like you have learnt a lot about Lightroom too which will really set you up from now on!! Fav!
January 21st, 2015  
@pamknowler Thanks Pam. The course was very worthwhile...just a note, though -- tuition covered four days, not 2. So we basically did 3 photo shoots on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and two photo shoots on Friday, and one in the morning on Tuesday (the day we left -- we left early so did our own, and I think the group was so tired they chose to skip a shoot and instead do a sharing/critique session). So I feel the cost was really worth it.
January 21st, 2015  
Fabulous shot and the ruin of the building really adds atmosphere to the shot. The line could also be a satellite.
Definitely a fav.
January 21st, 2015  
This is just fantastic Taffy. One of these days I'm going to have to go out with someone who knows what they're doing and try it.
January 21st, 2015  
Wonderful shot!
January 21st, 2015  
Love it there! Such a trippy place. Super shot, perfectly lit.
January 21st, 2015  
Stunning picture and processing. Congratulations on making the Trending Page. Well deserved.
January 22nd, 2015  
wow, those stars!!!
January 22nd, 2015  
Just wonderful, Taffy. The skies there most have been amazing.
January 22nd, 2015  
Awesome lighting! I love all the stars. fav!
January 22nd, 2015  
Awesome shot! Fav
January 22nd, 2015  
Great pov on this one
January 22nd, 2015  
Super shot... a fav for this, of course. Lovely stars and light. What a great opportunity to participate in such a lesson.
January 22nd, 2015  
Wow. Amazing.
January 22nd, 2015  
Stunning! It must have been amazing to do the course. I would love to have such an opportunity.
January 22nd, 2015  
The sky is wonderful. Makes anything beneath it a wonder too. Fav.
January 22nd, 2015  
This is such a great night shot, Taffy. Love the remains of this building and the stars. FAV
January 22nd, 2015  
Fantastic starry night sky! The workshops must have been so instructive and fun! Your results are amazing! I looked at the link to his website-- I'm really interested in his Zion workshop in Nov!
January 22nd, 2015  
I wish I could fav this twice! It's that good. I envy you the Death Valley trip. It's a fascinating place from what I have seen and read.
January 22nd, 2015  
@redy4et I think you'd enjoy it. He has a good sense of where to take the class members for photographing and is engaging in helping when you are there. He'll give you tips on composition as well. Feel free to email me off line if you'd like more specific information about it -- in gmail, my contact name is teraphael -- just use typical gmail format.
January 22nd, 2015  
Taffy, isn't that the Comet Lovejoy, the green light right in the middle at the top. You've even got some tail. Did you process out any noise because this looks great. I get so much noise in mine and it's really hard to get rid of. Your camera probably deals with noise better than mine. I also captured Lovejoy a couple of days ago and was rather thrilled about it. Love this shot, that building is so good to shoot the night sky against.
January 22nd, 2015  
Surely some very useful skills and techniques which you have learned on your trip!
January 22nd, 2015  
Wow. This is very atmospheric
January 22nd, 2015  
That is beautiful Taffy! love your pov and what a stars!!
January 22nd, 2015  
Just awesome - fav
January 22nd, 2015  
Outstanding work! A big fav!
January 22nd, 2015  
Now that is an AMAZING shot! Wow! And what fun place that must be to photograph!
January 22nd, 2015  
Fantastic shot! I just gotta ask...were the plaster cast 'ghosts' still there at Rhyolite? http://365project.org/blueberry1222/artsy/2014-07-06
January 22nd, 2015  
Very nicely done
January 22nd, 2015  
@bella_ss I think it might be, Sheralee!! I'm so excited. I looked at it more closely -- upper left center -- and sure enough, it's green and has a tail. WOW -- what a happy accident!!!
January 22nd, 2015  
@taffy I'm sure it is Taffy! How about that, you get this totally amazing shot AND you have the comet as well! I also had a happy accident in that I caught a meteor with mine, it's very faint though. http://365project.org/bella_ss/some-more/2015-01-19
January 22nd, 2015  
Amazing capture!
January 23rd, 2015  
Beautiful! This is something I'd like to do someday.
January 23rd, 2015  
JUST Magnificent Taffy. I could only dream of this kind of shot. Mega FAV
January 23rd, 2015  
What an incredible shot - fav
January 23rd, 2015  
wow! incredible! awesome POV
fav
January 23rd, 2015  
Fantastic shot. Have never seen so many stars in the sky at one go.
January 23rd, 2015  
Fave fave fave fave fave.
January 23rd, 2015  
Wow!! Just gorgeous shot!!
January 23rd, 2015  
Wonderful perspective, a super capture. Fav!! πŸ˜ƒ
January 23rd, 2015  
Amazing shot! So beautiful!
January 24th, 2015  
This is just amazing! What an experience you must have had.
January 24th, 2015  
This is wonderful Taffy and I love the title! Fav!
January 24th, 2015  
Awesome! Duh! Love the pov and processing. Huge fav.
January 24th, 2015  
@squamloon I love your enthusiasm -- makes me smile! Thank you so much!
January 24th, 2015  
What an amazing sky!
January 24th, 2015  
crikey! that sure is something!
January 24th, 2015  
You two must have had some fun cause Junko's shots are very cool too.
fav
January 24th, 2015  
wonderful. This picture puts me right back to a three-week visit as a teenager to Bluff, Utah -- way out in canyonland, with yellow ruins and stars. My first impression of the exotic place was of the stars. And the milky-way. Growing up in chicago, I did not know that these things really existed like this in the sky.
January 24th, 2015  
wow this is incredible
January 24th, 2015  
@francoise I had the same experience -- really appreciating what you can see in the rockies when living in Utah for 2 years.
January 24th, 2015  
Very well done Taffy!
January 25th, 2015  
This is fabulous Taffy, looks and sounds like it was a very worthwhile course.
January 26th, 2015  
This is a mega-stunner! I'm having fun reviewing all the photos of your trip (and working hard to quash all the jealousy!).
January 27th, 2015  
@archaeofrog Thanks Katie -- I always really value your opinion! It was a great opportunity and I feel very lucky to have these photos to work from.
January 27th, 2015  
@taffy I've always wondered when I have run into photo-workshop people at National Parks or so forth whether it is worth it, but it certainly looks like you two picked a real winner!
January 27th, 2015  
@archaeofrog I feel it was totally worth it and it was timely for me. It was helpful to have had 12 photo shoots during the time we were on the trip (sunrise, sunset, night sky each day) and to have had it all arranged for us was so convenient. It also meant not having to think about where to go in certain areas where there were crowds at the 'main' viewing site but our instructors knew of excellent spots just off the common path. And to have someone right there to ask questions about composition or setting made it worthwhile. It's not like you can't do it on your own, but this was certainly an easier way to go about it and more of a guarantee that it would happen (i.e., I know I would have skipped some sunrises on my own, or having done a sunrise and sunset shoot, I don't know that on my own I would have gone out again to do a night sky shot.
January 27th, 2015  
Congrats on TT!
January 30th, 2015  
Fabulous shot! Congratulations on TT!
January 30th, 2015  
Congratulations Taffy on making the Top Twenty with this amazing shot!
January 31st, 2015  
Congrats. Great shot. I know that bank from a couple of years ago. Love the starry night. fav.
January 31st, 2015  
Congrats on TT Taffy! So amazing!!
January 31st, 2015  
Congrats on TT Taffy - an amazing shot of the night sky!!
January 31st, 2015  
Beautiful capture and deserves to be in the T20
January 31st, 2015  
Superb perspective!! This is truly a dazzling shot!
February 4th, 2015  
Wow.
Awesome shot. You and Junko had fun here.
FAV!
February 10th, 2015  
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