Final Photo Project Proposal

Derek Rowe

Final Photo Project Proposal

I would like to photograph landscapes at night.  I want to make images of landscapes with a beautiful night sky in the background.  I would like to do this at many different locations and different times of the night.  I would like some images to have interesting things in the foreground and others to consist simply of a landscape with stars in the background. 

I want to do this because I like photographing at night, and I think that I could potentially make some beautiful images.  I have seen photographs like the ones I am thinking of trying to make, and they are unique in that they are at night, and the starry backgrounds make them much more beautiful than anything that could possibly be recorded during the day. 

I plan to make these photographs by setting my camera up on a tripod, and making long exposures up to 20 minutes, while illuminating certain subjects using a daylight-temperature LED flashlight.  My camera’s images get noisy fast with increasing ISO sensitivity, so I will try to use ISO 400 and lower.  With this sensitivity and a relatively small aperture, I may need exposures as long as 20 minutes, and the stars will trail quite a bit, but I think this could have a pleasing look in many situations.  When the only thing my photos consist of is stars and distant trees, I will be able to use larger apertures without having subjects out of focus.