Badlands

Cameron Cech shared this wonderful image with us. He wrote:

My buddy and I decided on a whim to drive 13 hours to spend Labor Day weekend at Badlands National Park [South Dakota]. The photo opportunities did not disappoint. All three nights displayed a truly black sky like neither of us had seen. It really felt like you could scoop the stars out of the sky.

Shortly after astronomical dusk on our last night we were both in separate areas of this canyon taking pictures. While I was walking to my next planned location to shoot, I saw my buddy standing up on a rock soaking in the immensity of what was above him. I set up, took a shot to make sure my framing was right, and then waited until he was done basking in the heavens. Only when he started to move to come down did I yelled up to him to stay there for a minute and turn on his headlamp. He happily obliged, held still, and allowed me to shoot his silhouette against the canyon walls.

Interested in how Cameron got this shot? Here are his technical details:

Camera: Fujifilm XT-1
Lens: Fujifilm 35mm f1.4
Tripod: Mefoto Roadtrip
10 sec exposure at f/1.4, ISO 2000
Lightroom CC: enhancement of clarity, white balance, highlights and shadows, noise reduction

Thank you Cameron!

Visit Cameron’s Flickr page