Arts Design

MOONLIT MAGIC: BRAD GOLDPAINT

by Brad Goldpaint. “Flash Point.” Mt. Shasta, CA.

GOLDPAINT PHOTOGRAPHY

Moonlight helps us to see the beauty of the night. Paradoxically, it also makes nocturnal beauty impossible to see. While the moon casts its glow and creates shadows on landscapes at night, it outcompetes with starlight, obliterating star twinkles from our view.

Photographer Brad Goldpaint is an expert both at getting the most out of moonlight and working his way around it to create the most spectacular night imagery. He specializes in landscape astrophotography, ranging from fine-art imagery of high altitude wilderness areas to time-lapse videos of the night sky, like “The Illusion of Lights.”

His mission is to promote the preservation of our night skies and inspire exploration. He encourages us to get out of the bright lights of cities and suburbs, away from all light pollutions, into the wilderness, to bask in moonlight and starlight.

When he began photographing the Milky Way, Goldpaint aimed for moonless lights, assuming that they would offer the clearest view of our sparkling galaxy. But while the stars came through bright and clear, the award-winning photographer noticed that the beauty of the landscapes below, was muted. He made it his business to solve this problem and create magnificent holistic views of our moonlit world.

A man gazes at the starry sky through a moonlit natural stone opening at Arches National Park, in Utah.

Because Goldpaint began to crave the missing moonlight, he began to experiment and explore new ways to capture both the glory of the stars and the magnificence of the moonlit earth in the same photo or video.

The moon and stars both shine brightly, lighting up the night sky and the rock formations at Yosemite National Park, in California.

About 3% of the sunlight that hits the moon gets reflected. As Goldpaint studied the effects of moonlight, he found that it changed, depending on the phase of the moon. The levels, angles, and color of illumination are different each night.

Moonlight casts shadows on the rolling pumice hills and trees of the Palouse, in Oregon.

Photography became a passion for Goldpaint while studying Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the International Institute of Architecture in Vico Morcote, Switzerland.

Stars twinkle as moonlight bathes the river rapids and trees in Smith Rock, Oregon.

In 2010, the sudden loss of Goldpaint’s mother drastically impacted him, making him question many things, including the focus of his work. He set out to find new meaning and inspiration by hiking and photographing 1300 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). As he hiked across the PCT wilderness, from the Mexico border near Campo, California, to Manning Park, British Columbia, Goldpaint took thousands of photos.

A photographer stands at the edge of the moonlit canyon with his camera and tripod taking photos.

Along his journey, Goldpaint captured everything from fields of wildflowers in the Mojave Desert to vast landscapes from some of the highest peaks on the John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. And, while he found extreme beauty everywhere, he began to gravitate towards the pristine, sometimes illusive visual drama of the night sky.

The Milky Way Galaxy shines bright overhead as the moon shines at the horizon, with stone arches framing all at Arches National Park, in Utah.

“Capturing the night sky in relation to earthly landscapes is my visual representation of [wo]man’s search for meaning,” Goldpaint explains. “For example, the galaxy may represent the unknown or future, while the chosen landscape may represent our physical limitations and being in the present moment.”

Scattered stars and a swatch of the Milky Way Galaxy hang in the night sky over the snow dusted Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, in California.

Goldpaint’s spectacular new video, "Within Two Worlds," combines about 7,000 photos of the night sky taken over the last three years into a dazzling display of both Earth and space.

The bright orange full moon shines through eclipse in the night sky above snow-capped Mt Shasta, in California.

The video includes amazing scenes of the moon, the Milky Way, the Aurora Borealis, oodles of stars, and moonlit landscapes, including scenic spots in the Pacific Northwest, such as Crater Lake National Park, Mount Shasta, the Painted Hills, Tumalo Falls, Sparks Lake, Mono Lake, and more.

In the "Within Two Worlds" video, Goldpaint used Nikon cameras and equipment to capture his amazing night sky photos, but the images featured were taken without motion control systems.

The moonlit Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest stands majestically against the starry sky and Milky Way Galaxy in the Great Basin Desert, in California.

"This time-lapse video is my visual representation of how the night sky and landscapes co-exist within a world of contradictions." The video is set to the serene "Believe in Yourself," and instrumental piece, composed by Serge Essiambre.

The beautiful Milky Way Galaxy arches in the sky over Crater Lake, with the pink aurora at one end and the yellow moon at the other, in Oregon.

Goldpaint offers brilliant night photography workshops, in which he leads participants to some of his favorite spots, shares his technical knowledge and tips (with and without moonlight), and sheds his own inner light on the beauty of darkness.

The Milky Way Galaxy spread across the starry night sky as the moon shines on the Quiver Tree Forest in Namibia.

One only has to look at photos taken by his workshop alumni to see what an excellent teacher he is. Check out his 2018 Workshops schedule soon, because they do sell out.

The Milky Way Galaxy shines, along with millions of other stars and the moon in the night sky above Crater Lake and snowy grounds, in Oregon.

You can purchase Goldpaint’s magnificent fine art prints of moonlit and starlit night skies and landscapes here.

The Milky Way Galaxy appears in the night sky over the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountain range, with an ancient tree in the foreground lit up by the moon.

Read more about Night Beauty all this week on BeautifulNow, including Night Time Mega Beauty Captured, and Sleep in Heavenly Peace. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

The lights from the Milky Way Galaxy and the moon shine on the lake and surrounding landscape at Shasta Trinity National Forest, in California.

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The moon lights up swirling lenticular clouds above Mt. Shasta, in California.

IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Flash Point.” Mt. Shasta, CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “The North Window - Arches National Park.” Arches National Park, UT.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Paradoxical.” Yosemite National Park, CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. Moonlight illuminates colorful pumice fields and volcanic ash. The Palouse, OR.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Rivers Keepsake.” Crooked River. Smith Rock, OR.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. Moonlit desert canyon.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Three Arches Above Utah.” Arches National Park, UT.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Carved Into Life.” Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “DOMINA ORIENS. A shot of the eclipsed moon over Mount Shasta, in California's Cascade Mountain range.” Mt. Shasta. CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. Star trails over Mt. Shasta. Mt. Shasta. CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Old Acquaintance.” Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Great Basin Desert, CA.
Image: by Keith Lisk. “Milky Way and Aurora over Crater Lake.” Courtesy of Goldpaint Photography. Crater Lake National Park, OR.
Image: by Kirsten Tucker. “Quiver Tree Forest, Namibia.” Quiver Tree Forest. Namibia. Courtesy of Goldpaint Photography.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Beyond the Rim.” Cascade Mountains. Crater Lake National National Park. OR.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Sudden Magnitude.” Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. “Giving Away to Night.” Shasta Trinity National Forest, CA.
Image: by Brad Goldpaint. Moonlit lenticular clouds form over Mount Shasta. Mt. Shasta, CA.