Arizona Nights

This is a collection of photography taken when I used to live in Arizona. Almost all of them are from my little hometown of Arivaca, Arizona. It highlights the start of my photography journey, and shows off the shots that made me fall in love with Nightscape and Landscape Photography. The shot at the right is my very first low light shot. I was so stunned by the surreal colors and how different this scene looked through a camera that it instantly hooked me. Low light and nightscape photography has been my favorite to shoot ever since then. I feel like my photography has come a long way, but I would have never gotten this far without the trial and error of these desert shots.

EXIF for Image #1:
Camera: Cannon EOS Rebel w/kit lens
ISO: 1600
Shot: 1/10s @ f3.6

A wide shot of a small store at nighttime with an orange adobe facade and deep purple skies.
A square format black and white image of a boardwalk in a wildlife refuge at night with starry skies.
This photo was taken at the wildlife refuge in my little town. It was shot on my Nikon and then cropped to square format to help focus the viewer on the froeground of the scene. I like to think that this shot shows off how peacful the nighttime is.

EXIF:
Camera: Nikon D5000
ISO: 800
Shot: 30s @ f3.6, Nikon 18-55mm 1:35 Lens
A nighttime shot of a dirtroad leading off to distant mountains, with a bright moon hanging overhead.
This photo was one of the first times I had ever gotten the moon in the frame, and was initially surprised at how cool colored the scene was and just how bright the moon actually is. I love the surreal quality of this shot. It could almost be shot during the daytime with the sun instead of the moon, but the cool colors and the faint stars in the sky tell a different story.

EXIF:
Camera: Nikon D5000
ISO: 400
Shot: 30s @ f3.5, Nikon 18-55mm 1:35 Lens
A nighttime scene of distant mountains with grassy yellow hills as far as the eye can see.
This is another photo taken near my hometown, on the road to the next town. This was one of the places I remember as not looking like Arizona at all, feeling very midwestern even. The nighttime made this scene look so different from normal I felt like I was in a different place altogether. The contrasting colors of the yellowed graass and the deep blue sky was an unexpected result, but one of my favorite qualities to this shot.

EXIF:
Camera: Nikon D5000
ISO: 200
Shot: 30s @ f2.8, Nikon 18-55mm 1:35 Lens
A cureved dirt road in the desert, with bare mesquite trees and yellowed grass in the foreground. In the background sits a two peaked mountain with heavily starred skys and a red glow from distant cities peeking from behind.
This shot was taken near Rio Rico Arizona, and shows off my arch nemesis of the desert. The glow from the distant cities has ruined many photo ideas I've had, but in this particular shot it adds to the scene rather than covering up the details. Even in the dead of night in the desert you can see the glow from cities like Tucson, 60 miles away. This was one of the last nightscapes I took in Arizona before eventually moving to Oregon.

EXIF:
Camera: Nikon D5000
ISO: 800
Shot: 30s @ f2.8, Nikon 18-55mm 1:35 Lens
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