Paul D. Photography

Black Point Fissures and Milky Way: Self-Assignment

“Is there not
A tongue in every star that talks with man,
And wooes him to be wise? nor wooes in vain;
This dead of midnight is the noon of thought,
And wisdom mounts her zenith with the stars.” 
― Anna Laetitia Barbauld

The Black Point Fissures were formed over 13,000 years ago during an underwater volcanic eruption. Here I have illuminated one of the fissures with the Milky Way in the sky on a dark night.

Every now and then it is a good idea to challenge yourself as a photographer and artist. Setting up your own self assignment can help grow your skills as well as expand your creativity.

For my self-assignment this month I decided to light up the Black Point Fissures at night. Black Point is a flattened volcanic cone near the eastern shore of Mono Lake.  It was formed by an underwater eruption 13,000 years ago when the lake was much deeper. As the magma hardened it cracked and the fissures were formed.  The fissures range from 20 to 50 feet deep and in some places are only a few feet wide. Black Point is thought to be the only fully exposed underwater volcano on earth. From a distance it is not a very inspiring photographic location so taking a cue from Ansel Adams I set out to see if I could make it bend to my vision.

Black point Fissures just before sunset.

The goal I set for myself was to light the fissures in a way that was evocative of their volcanic origins and place the Milky Way, a bridge to the primordial past, across the sky. My son, Brandon, accompanied me on this trip. An early Father’s Day present for me.  Arriving at the trail head a few hours before sunset we packed our backpacks with all the camera and lighting equipment we would need for the night. When we were ready we began the moderate one mile hike across the volcanic ash slope of Black Point to the fissures.

Never having been to the fissures before I had to rely on my research to locate a position from which I could capture the fissures with the Milky Way in the sky. Once I decided on my composition it was time to set up the lighting. After scouting around I located several access points to enter the fissures. I began by setting up 2 small LED video lights with CTO (color correction) gels to light up 2 sections of the main fissure.  I also added a radio triggered flash with CTO gel to light up the rock face in front of the camera. I had planned on using another radio triggered flash to illuminate one of the branches of the fissure, however the batteries were dead and I had left my spare batteries back in the car.  Fortunately, in my light painting kit I had 3 small LED votive candles. I used these to light up the branch of the fissure instead. I had to make multiple trips into the fissures over the course of the next hour to reposition and adjust the lighting. Once I had the lighting set up it was just a matter of waiting until 12:30 AM for the Milky Way to be in the optimum position.

This self-assignment provided not only an artistic and technical challenge, but the climbing in and out of the fissures setting up lights added a physical challenge. In the end I was happy with the results.

Camera information: Canon 5DmkIV with Sigma 14mm f/1.8 Art lens. Exposure for the milky way was 20 seconds, f/2.2 and ISO 2500.

Panoramic stitched from 6 vertical images.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2018 at 11:48 pm. It is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.