Wonderful camp on the Alvord. This is one of my favorites from 2017 because of the comradery of like minded photographers gathering under very dark skies. Continue to learn more about shooting the fisheyes at night.

Aurora dancing over downtown Seattle. Kp 6 was expected until 8pm, and air clarity was super clear in Northwest on the 27th of September. I knew we might be able to capture northern light by going north such as Mt. Baker, but based on the air clarity, I decided to challenge capturing the northern lights with Seattle downtown. The northern lights exploded while I was capturing a time-lapse around 11pm. Thanks to my photo god.

This is my favorite image of 2017 due to the serendipitous nature of the shot.  I was at the Painted Hills to shoot the Milky Way over Red Scar but while I was there I looked North and was able to visually see the aurora dancing.  I then proceeded to stand in amazement for at least 30 minutes watching the beams of the aurora dance back and forth while I continued to shoot including this 6 shot panorama.

I continue to be drawn to this image of moon rise over a high alpine lake in Northern California because of its sublime feeling.  The scene required focus stacking and an earlier capture of the Milky Way to have it positioned properly for the final composition, so I think the work involved helped make this a special image for me.

This is my favorite for 2017 because it was my very first Milky Way Pano. It was taken on night 1 of the Bisti Wilderness Alumni Workshop. Brad helped me set up for the pano and then I proceeded to take probably twice as many shots as needed. I mean, I didn’t want the too far apart – right??? This night was when I learned that Milky Way arch shots are best taken in spring and early summer. A new tidbit of information stored away for future compositions! What I really enjoyed about this shot was getting to know two of my classmates better while we each worked through the pano shots.

This photo was special first because Sandy and I were sharing the Iowa night sky together just as we had many years earlier as kids growing up on the farm. It is also special because it was on a previously poor piece of land my parents bought years ago that was so poor it was named The Goldmine because the top soil was gone and the gold clay was showing.

I shot this photo in one of the alumni New Mexico Badlands workshops. It’s my favorite because I had to train all year for that workshop, and during it I got some serious blisters, but still managed to go on all the outings and get some awesome images.

This image is special for me as this was on my bucket list for 3 years and this year I could finally capture it. Traveling from NJ to Grand Junction, driving to Canyonlands, hiking on a route which has no official trail, all in one day to capture this image. The feeling I experienced while camping out here cannot be explained in words. When the stars came the pain in the body vanished and gave me an experience which was memorable.

The Gunnison River runs 2500’ below the rim of the Black Canyon.  While it’s not a spectacular capture, it’s my favorite this year in part because I feel I’m getting better at foreground captures, and this one was particularly challenging due to the steep cliffs and new moon. This was taken while I was home last summer visiting my dad who passed away just a couple months later, so it has some special meaning for me that way too.

See more of Nancy’s work by visiting her website.