The 175 photos that follow seem like they may had been taken in the course of the day. Nevertheless it’s not day. It’s night. The photos are lying, due to long exposures that soak within the colorful nightlife.

Lead Shot – Lifeguard

I was camping with my son at San Elijo State Beach in San Diego, CA after I took this photo of a lifeguard stand in the course of the night on Jan. 23rd, 2011. Since I didn’t have a tripod, I just leaned my camera against the staircase. After I was editing I realized you cans see the constellation Orion inside the clouds at left. Nikon D3 17mm, f2.8, 6 seconds, ASA 4000
-K.C. Alfred

Snow Day

I live within the midwest and it in order that happens that, on the night of the complete moon, January 20, we received a extremely heavy snow storm(9in where I live). Probably the most unfortunate part about this snow storm was you could not see the total moon at all and it really didn’t help that the wind chill was 0 degrees, there was snow flying everywhere, and my equipment was getting all wet. So I made up my mind to take this shot from my back door, I had my lens hood on and that was jam-packed with snow even from in the house. Overall it was a terrible night(based on the complaining I did within the previous sentences) and this was the appropriate that I may get while being snowed in and having limited resources. Canon EOS 20D, Canon 28-70L, ISO 200, 55mm, 25.0s, f/6.3.
-George Westlake

Haystack Rock

That’s Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, Oregon. The shot was taken about 3 hours after sunset and the moon had just risen. As I was finishing another project and packing up to depart I looked behind me one last time and saw this… And knew I had to take this picture. Nothing special was done in post production aside from some simple RAW adjustments. Canon 1D Mark IV, 35mm 1.4, 8 second exposure, 200 ISO.
-Paul Seeber

Cliffs at Sunrise

With school engulfing much of my time on top of tragically having to sell my Nikon D200 to afford a car, I haven’t had a big gamble to shoot anything digital recently. My boyfriend and our other friend wanted to head have a stab at this challenge, and I determined to tag including my Mamiya RB 67 for fun. The 120 back to my camera was malfunctioning, but I managed to steal my boyfriend’s Canon 5D mk II away and shot this: my first day for night exposure. The exposure was 30 seconds long using a Canon 15mm at ISO 800, f6.3, and was taken around midnight on the rocky sea cliffs of Santa Cruz. I was proud of the simplicity of it.
- Jennifer Kehl

Laguna Beach

My friend told me about this contest so we both went all the way down to Laguna Beach to shoot photos. I had never done an entire moon shot like this before. Not the darkest place on earth but we didn’t wish to travel very far. Shot this from a stairs that lead all the way down to the beach. I liked the lights inside the background because they still showed it was night regardless that it seems like late afternoon. This was really fun. Canon 20D, 70-200mm @ 70mm, F8 @ 90 seconds, ISO 400
-Zach Hunter

When the Coyotes Started Circling

Here is one of my favorite New Mexico back roads, and this tree has always been my favorite feature. It stands all by itself, out in the course of the desert. I’ve wanted to shoot it for quite it slow, but I’ve never been in a position to envision the correct scene in my head. So, each time I take this road, I just drive past and smile at it, thinking that someday I’ll get that shot.

And then there was this shooting challenge . I knew what I had to do.

I started shooting around 11:30 at night. The moon, about 2 days past full, gave me a pleasant side light. I used my old manual Vivitar 19mm f/3.8 wide open on my Nikon D300, daylight white balance, ISO 1600, and a 20 second exposure. This let me snap off one or two before having to head the camera and tripod out of the middle of the road for traffic. However, none of those middle of the road shots came out as nice as this from-the-shoulder one did. When the coyotes started circling, I made up my mind to pack up and contact it a night.
-Adam Wolf

Spark at Dawn

I was out for a Moonlight climbing trip and stopped after I saw my friends arising the path to me. I waited for them to enter frame and let the camera do its thing. The lights are headlamps. We were on our way out of Hueco Tanks State Park in Texas. F8 30 seconds, 14-24mm f2.8 Nikkor lense, D3 on Tripod.
-Craig Copelin

Sunrise?

Took this shot with a Canon Rebel T1i using a Sigma 70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens. I carefully placed the camera on my bedpost and pointed it out the window, balancing the camera basically on the lens. It was also on top of a couple hats, so I didn’t feel worried about it falling too much. Used a remote shutter to tug off the 8 minute exposure at F8 using ISO 100. Jogs my memory how Sunrise looks from a similar spot, because the window faces East, so the sunrise is sort of an analogous spot. The light source is really a street lamp by an intersection.

Was going to take a look at something else, but last night was -2F, which was far too cold for me!
-James Grabow

Curu Wildlife Refuge

Photo was taken at the Curu Wildlife Refuge, Peninusla of Nicoya in Costa Rica. Curu it’s nearly the public after hours unless staying in some of the cabin’s they have got for rent; this night my wife and I were the best ones on the park so we had a whole private beach to ourselves. The light inside the distance is from the port of Puntarenas.
-Pablo N. Piedra

Gordan MacFarlane

It’s my first submission, after many many months of weekly keeping up with the challenges, this one seamed very Interesting. The example shot seamed impossible that it was done at night and actually wanted to attempt it out for my-self. I went out on 2 nights to take some pictures, Wed was the whole moon and it finally cleared up much later at night. I got some photo’s I was proud of but I noticed that they didn’t really capture the spirit of this challenge so I went out Thursday night and decided to go to the cemetery. Sadly I may only see the moon threw some thick cloud so I had to shoot with the available light pollution that my great city was offering me. It was still night and it took loads of experimentation to get the settings most excellent. I believe what turned out was a good shot. ISO:200, f/11, 121s exposure, 50mm on my 18-200mm nikkor lens. Taken at around 11pm. Shot with my Nikon D70s.
-Paul MackKenzie

Water Under the Bridge

So I ultimately decided to take part in a shooting challenge. Why this one? Well about a year and a half ago, I shot a photo at nighttime of a cow in a pasture. What made it so special was that the photo gave the impression of it was taken on a sunny day. After I showed the picture to friends, they sometimes could not understand what was so special concerning the photo. I might tell them; ” what if I told you that wasn’t the sun.” They’d concentrate on it….. then, OMG how did you try this?. Long exposure and a cow that stood very still. I included that photo, but not as my submission for the shooting challenge. The photo for the shooting challenge was a section different. About 40 degrees different. Saturday night my buddy and I drove out of town to escape from the entire light pollution. After about an hour of driving, we drove across a bridge that spanned the Haw river on the outskirts of Pittsboro, North Carolina. I had fished below the bridge previously, and I knew that it may make for an engaging photo. Over time, frequent visitors of the world have cleared out a make shift parking area inside the woods and a trail all the way down to the rocky river. Knowing we’d be there ages, the first task was getting a fireplace going. After thawing my hands out, it was time to get all the way down to business. I found a flat area along the bank to install my tripod. Took some test shots, cranking my ISO to 1600 so I wouldn’t be waiting as long for my results. After finding my desired framing, I dropped the ISO all the way down to 400, calculated my new shutter duration (5 minutes) and went for it. As you’ll discover inside the photograph, the sky moves rather a lot in exactly 5 minutes. It’s also possible to see the red glow of our fire, on the underside of the tree branches hanging over the river. The photo was taken Sunday Jan. 23 @ about 1:30 A.M. I had a blast with this challenge, so expect more entries from me !! Canon 30D, Canon 24-70L 2.8 @ 25mm, f/ 5.6, ISO: 400, Shutter Speed: 5 minutes (I used an intervalometer)

p.s. The timing of this challenge worked out well for digital SLR photographers. Shooting in low temperatures helps keep long exposure heat noise down.

Also, I attached a groovy photo of the fireplace nestled inside the rocks that kept us warm.
-Danny Boemermann

Winner – Moonlight Tan

So I live in Puerto Rico, where there is beach everywhere. I was at a friends house and i explained the challenge to them they liked it so bad that we all went to the beach to take some pics, I Had my Canon T2i, with a 24-70 F2.8, and a Slik Tripod, the settings were Iso 400, F 8, Shutter 302 secs. and at 24mm. I did several pictures of 8 guys playing soccer, standing there for 5 mins!! but this one was the more sharp! It was really Fun.
-Juan Lizarzaburo

There were so many surreal, haunting and wonderful shots. This challenge was numerous fun, no? Granted, some of you stood out in zero-degree weather, but for anything of us, SO MUCH FUN! As always, full-size shots are at flickr , and now we have all the collection of galleries below.

Gallery One

Gallery Two

Gallery Three

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This post is tagged: cannon beach oregon, canon 1d mark, canon eos 20d, colorful nightlife, constellation orion, san elijo state beach