Bobby Bradley Bobby Bradley

Blue Ghosts #9

Blue Ghosts #9-0001.jpg

One of my favorites from this year’s season of Blue Ghost Firefly shooting is this one over as small stream. I usually have a 1-2 hot spots I can count on year to year, but this year I was able to find this great new spot in the woods with some water and moss and all sorts of great trees.

This image is a composite of about 15 4 minute exposures and the moon even made an appearance towards the end of the night to catch the trees just right in a nice side light.

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Blue Ghost Photo Tours

A Special Tour Photographing Blue Ghosts

Join Brevard based photographer Bobby Bradley and the FIND Outdoors naturalists for a unique experience to photograph Blue Ghost Fireflies at the Cradle of Forestry without the crowds. Group size will be limited to 6 participants so that we can spread out amongst the two miles of paved trails at the Cradle to allow for a very dark and private opportunity to capture long exposure firefly images.

The dates have been specifically chosen around the darkest times of the firefly active period and also on nights where the general ticketed public is not present and typically not allowed to use tripods. 

The tour will begin with a mini workshop and equipment overview with the participants as well as review Bobby’s past images and discuss techniques to achieve optimal results. After discussing goals and equipment strategy, the group will go out on the trail to scout out locations and also learn about Blue Ghosts with a FIND Outdoors naturalist. 

Once dark enough for fireflies to emerge, the participants will split into pairs to at least 3 locations (2 participants at each location). Bobby will rotate along the 3 locations to offer tips, tricks, and advice as well as setting up his own cameras to shoot alongside. At approximately 11pm we will wrap up shooting and return to the building to review images and celebrate the night of shooting.

Registration is handled directly by FIND Outdoors.

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Bobby Bradley Bobby Bradley

Blue Ghosts 2020

This year’s Blue Ghost firefly season certainly did not disappoint. This image was one of the first I captured around the new moon in mid-May. It was a super dark night which allowed for the fireflies to really pop against the foreground. The other remarkable thing about this image (at least to me) is that I was able to get this photo in a single shot. Usually to make a blue ghost image that has tons of light streaks I utilize anywhere from 3-10 images and stack them to make the image pop. In this case I got a single perfectly exposed image with a nice foreground and tons of blue ghost activity. I’d like to say I planned this but sometimes it takes a little luck. Out of 10 night or so of shooting I only got this one perfectly exposed shot, which is still more than I could have asked for. These little guys are so hard to shoot!

While this year’s blue ghosts are gone until next year (except for a few stragglers) I’m hoping to edit a few more 5-star shots to make prints available.

I’ve added this image to the growing Fine Art prints I’ve started producing in my home studio. And this year I’ve created a few fine art prints to offer for sale in support of FIND Outdoors and the Cradle of Forestry in America. For all purchases of Blue Ghost Prints I’ll be donating 20% of the proceeds to The Cradle of Forestry which usually offers Blue Ghost Tours every May, however, sadly had to cancel this year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the prints here:

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Bobby Bradley Bobby Bradley

Blue Ghost Fireflies

Once again as we enter Spring the Blue Ghost firefly season is upon us in the mountains of Western North Carolina. Every year I am blessed to be around many pockets of Blue Ghost Firefly activity and love the challenge of trying to capture the beauty of the fireflies. It’s not easy!

Below are a few Blue Ghost Fireflies Long Exposure Photos taken in Brevard, North Carolina, over the last 2 years. These images are a composite of approximately 2 hours of long exposures as Blue Ghosts traveled through the forest during their annual emergence to breed in the late spring/early summer.

This period of activity usually only lasts about 2-4 weeks from late April to mid June depending on environmental conditions. Trying to capture the beauty of the Blue Ghosts is a one of my favorite annual challenges!

This year I’ve created a few fine art prints to offer for sale in support of FIND Outdoors and the Cradle of Forestry in America. For all purchases of Blue Ghost Prints I’ll be donating 20% of the proceeds to The Cradle of Forestry which usually offers Blue Ghost Tours every May, however, sadly had to cancel this year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the prints here:

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Botswana Bobby Bradley Botswana Bobby Bradley

Botswana Night Sky in Okavango Delta

Botswana-Night-Sky-Okavango-Delta-Paradise-Pools

I think this is one of my favorite images from our time in Botswana last November. While camping in the Okavango Delta I didn't expect to do any night photography because of the density of animals around the area, but as luck (or misfortune) would have it our truck got stuck and we had to camp in the bush. Despite being stuck we made the most of it and was able to get this image as we hung out in Paradise Pools in Moremi National Game Reserve with Hippos and other animals grazing around us all night!

This is a single exposure with foreground lit from a helper using a high CRI flashlight.

Paradise Pools, Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana

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North Carolina Bobby Bradley North Carolina Bobby Bradley

Gorges Lower Bearwallow Waterfall

This is a not so secret but super tricky waterfall to get to that rewarded my journey with more than I could imagine.  The first time I had been to Gorges State Park in North Carolina was for a 3 day hike and on the first day my hiking partner and I had the GPS point for this falls but because of the lack of established paths we still couldn't find this falls!  

So, this last week a buddy of mine who is a ranger in the park set off to try and actually find it.  After about 4 miles hiking on the main path and then about an hour wading through the creek/river upstream towards the falls we came around the bend to this awesome sight.  The climb out along the ridge led us eventually back to the path which was tricky but much less work than the hike in through the creek.  Really beautiful waterfall and if you are adventurous hopefully you can find it too!

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Grand Canyon at Twilight

 
 

Another epic view from the lookout at Toroweap in the Grand Canyon National Park.  I had set up cameras just before sunset to capture stars throughout the night but this was one of the first images I had taken just as the sun had dropped down below the horizon.  

One of my favorite times of day to shoot is during civil twilight which is the period just after sunset for about 30 minutes or so, depending on the season, where the light still lights catches the landscape but is super soft and also allows for some more detail in the sky without being blown out.  To capture this low of light though I definitely had to work quickly while also doing long exposures to keep noise low.

On this night the light was really just perfect even in the canyon itself which at about 3000ft down from me and can become a black hole during the early and later part of the day.  There is also just something about the color tones present in the desert that I just can't get over.  All the subtle reds, browns and spots of color from water, the sky and vegetation are just so beautiful!

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Grand Canyon Night Sky

 
 

After driving about 2000 miles from North Carolina over a bunch of days, a blown out tire and a couple nights of waiting for clouds to disperse I finally had a clear night without any light pollution to shoot some stars...and boy was it a treat to shoot out at Toroweap on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon!

This night in particular I was able to shoot all night on the rim about 3000ft above the Colorado River without a soul or a city in sight.  The tree featured in this shot I must have shot from about 10 different angles...it was just so perfect!  This image was made up from about 350 images taken at 30s intervals and one images taken around twilights before all light on the foreground disappeared.

From this one night I took so many images I used up almost all my batteries and cards and hardly got any sleep before having to drive out the next morning, but man was it a spectacular spot!  If you have a 4x4 and fully sufficient for a few days definitely check out Tuweep/Toroweap in the Grand Canyon National Park.  Just be sure to grab a permit well in advance as there is no facilities at the campsite and advance reservations are required for overnight stays.  Tuweep info can be found here https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/tuweep.htm

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Namibia Bobby Bradley Namibia Bobby Bradley

Night out on Spitzkoppe

Back in February of 2016 I spent a few days solo camping at Spitzkoppe, Namibia with the goal of shooting the night sky and the surrounding area while the skies were clear and the weather was pleasant.  I had been to Spitzkoppe before and had a really amazing time in the park scrambling around the rocks at night shooting the milky way over the Spitzkoppe Mountain, but after looking at the mountain in so many shots after the trip I could only think about how cool it would be to shoot from up on top.  So, on this trip I choose a really epic camp site right on the eastern side of the park at the base of Grosse Spitzkoppe.  After a full day of scouting locations I though I should go ahead and hike up the mountain to shoot sunset and then I'll just return down to the campsite afterwards for the night.  In my excitement for getting up to the top of the mountain I didn't really factor in how much of a scramble it was to get up the mountain as the terrain was almost exclusively big round rocks, gravel and thorn bushes and not to mention there was no clear trail.

After 45 minutes or so of awkward scrambling up the rocky mountain side with full camera kit in tow I pretty much accepted my fate.  The light was gorgeous up top so I set up both cameras to do some long exposures here and there and by the time the light was fading had to come to terms that there was no way I could scramble down the rocks in the dark safely.  I looked through my bag and I had a spare Clif Bar, water and a can of beer, but that was about all the rations I had for the night.  I probably should have been a little more prepared, but I was just so excited to actually get up there and shoot I kinda forgot to stop and plan.

In any case I gathered myself together and made a plan to make the most of the night and shoot until I ran out of batteries.  This shot was taken just at sunset and into Astrological Twilight.  I let the camera set out for about 2 hours capturing images from just after sunset to get a nice glow on the foreground and then also captured the stars once the sky got dark enough.  In post processing I blended 2-3 images together from that sequence to make the final image.

In the end I shot until about midnight then napped amongst some rocks on my pack for a couple hours until the Milky Way rose and then continued shooting until just before dawn when all my batteries were drained.  Long exposures take a toll on batteries and I shot a bunch of hours on probably 5 batteries total.

The night was long, cold and kinda uncertain, but turned out to be one of the most exciting nights of photography to date for me even if I was kinda stupid in planning it out.  Finally, I've made this image into a limited edition print which is available at this link.

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Blue Ridge Eclipses

Solar Eclipse 2017 | Brevard, NC

2017 and the beginning of 2018 have brought some really special sky events to the Western North Carolina area with both a full solar eclipse and the super-blue moon lunar eclipse of January 2018.  Weather around these parts is so wet and rainy that it's been typical to have rain clouds at least 50% of the time and unfortunately we have some clouds roll in for the solar eclipse last fall.

We were in the path of totality for the solar eclipse and it was really remarkable to view in person (with the right proactive eyewear of course).  Sadly, the clouds rolled in right during the totality event and I had to make due with shooting photos through the clouds and didn't quite get that money shot of a total eclipse.  The shot above turned out quite nice though and was still an amazing event to witness.  And, I didn't ruin any cameras in the process!

However, for the epic partial eclipse super blue moon we had some really break clouds and skies that morning.  I spent the sunrise over at my neighbor's porch which has to be one of the best views of the Blue Ridge mountains anywhere.  The moon set right over the mountains while getting partially obstructed by the earth during a really spectacular sunrise sky.

Partial Lunar Eclipse 2018 | Brevard, NC

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