The 175 photos that follow look like they might have been taken during the day. But it's not day. It's night. The photos are lying, thanks to long exposures that soak in the colorful nightlife.


Lead Shot - Lifeguard

I was camping with my son at San Elijo State Beach in San Diego, CA when I took this photo of a lifeguard stand in the middle of the night on Jan. 23rd, 2011. Since I did not have a tripod, I just leaned my camera against the staircase. When I was editing I noticed you cans see the constellation Orion in the clouds at left. Nikon D3 17mm, f2.8, 6 seconds, ASA 4000

-K.C. Alfred


Snow Day



I live in the midwest and it just so happens that, on the night of the full moon, January 20, we received a very heavy snow storm(9in where I live). The most unfortunate part about this snow storm was that you could not see the full moon at all and it really didn't help that the wind chill was 0 degrees, there was snow flying all over the place, and my equipment was getting all wet. So I decided to take this shot from my back door, I had my lens hood on and that was filled with snow even from inside the house. Overall it was a terrible night(based on the complaining I did in the previous sentences) and this was the best that I could 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




This is 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 leave 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 other than 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 chance to shoot anything digital recently. My boyfriend and our other friend wanted to go have a stab at this challenge, and I decided to tag along with 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 happy with the simplicity of it.

- Jennifer Kehl

Laguna Beach




My friend told me about this contest so we both went down to Laguna Beach to shoot photos. I had never done a full moon shot like this before. Not the darkest place in the world but we didn't want to travel very far. Shot this from a stairs that lead down to the beach. I liked the lights in the background because they still showed it was night even though it looks like late afternoon. This was really fun. Canon 20D, 70-200mm @ 70mm, F8 @ 90 seconds, ISO 400

-Zach Hunter

When the Coyotes Started Circling




This 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 middle of the desert. I've wanted to shoot it for quite a while, but I've never been able to envision the right scene in my head. So, every 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 nice 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 move 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 decided to pack up and call it a night.

-Adam Wolf


Spark at Dawn




I was out for a Moonlight climbing trip and stopped when I saw my friends coming up 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




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 pull off the 8 minute exposure at F8 using ISO 100. Reminds me how Sunrise looks from the same spot, because the window faces East, so the sunrise is almost the same spot. The light source is actually a street lamp by an intersection.

Was going to try 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 close to the public after hours unless staying in one of the cabin's they have for rent; this night my wife and I were the only ones on the park so we had an entire private beach to ourselves. The light in the distance is from the port of Puntarenas.

-Pablo N. Piedra

Gordan MacFarlane




This is 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 really wanted to try it out for my-self. I went out on 2 nights to take some pictures, Wed was the full moon and it finally cleared up much later at night. I got some photo's I was happy with but I realized that they did not really capture the spirit of this challenge so I went out Thursday night and decided to head to the cemetery. Sadly I could 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 a lot of experimentation to get the settings just right. I think what turned out was a great 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 finally decided to take part in a shooting challenge. Why this one? Well about a year and a half ago, I shot a photo at midnight of a cow in a pasture. What made it so special was that the photo looked like it was taken on a sunny day. When I showed the picture to friends, they often could not understand what was so special about the photo. I would tell them; "what if I told you that wasn't the sun." They would think about it..... then, OMG how did you do that?. 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 bit different. About 40 degrees different. Saturday night my buddy and I drove out of the city to get away from all of the 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 in the past, and I knew that it could make for an interesting photo. Over the years, frequent visitors of the area have cleared out a make shift parking area in the woods and a trail down to the rocky river. Knowing we would be there a while, the first task was getting a fire going. After thawing my hands out, it was time to get down to business. I found a flat area along the bank to set up 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 down to 400, calculated my new shutter duration (5 minutes) and went for it. As you can see in the photograph, the sky moves quite a bit in just 5 minutes. You can also 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 in the future!! 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 cool photo of the fire nestled in 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 beautiful shots. This challenge was a whole lot of fun, no? Granted, some of you stood out in zero-degree weather, but for the rest of us, SO MUCH FUN! As always, full-size shots are at flickr, and we have the entire collection of galleries below.


Gallery One




Gallery Two




Gallery Three



Shooting Challenge: Day, Gallery 3 The hardest part of this challenge was finding a place without lights, so I went to an abandoned… Read more

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