Guest Gallery: Paul Atkinson
This month's guest gallery features the work of Paul Atkinson. In 2024 he was the Artist in Residence at Great Basin National Park in October and November. His photos help capture the beauty of nature that can be seen within the park. Learn more about Paul in the Q&A.
All images Copyright 2024 Paul Atkinson
Comet Over Wheeler Peak
First on my list for my residency at Great Basin was shooting Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS C/2023 A3 before it disappeared on its 80,000-year cycle. I had really been looking forward to shooting the comet with some dark sky scenery (which is not something I can find at home). The first night I set up near the park entrance, but was dissatisfied with the light bleeding into the bottom of the frame from the visitor center and campground. I found a better location some distance down a gravel road the second night, which is where I shot this image. I let the comet be a bit more central in the frame than the Milky Way to help give emphasis to the comet.
Six Minutes of Twilight at Stella Lake
It was bitterly cold in the blowing wind, but after shooting Orion over the lake, I decided to wait the hour or so to see what twilight would bring me. And it brought me this. Although my fingers and toes begged to differ, it was worth the wait. Incidentally, this was the last image I shot on that two-night backpacking trip before my last camera battery died from the cold. And with no battery, I was unable to see the image until later that day after I had hiked back down the mountain to warmth and electricity.
Pictographs by Moonlight
These ancient pictographs were on a rock face at a cave entrance, which I shot near the end of my residency. The waxing moon was now up most of the night which made capturing delicate details of the night sky more difficult as the bright moonlight washed out the stars. But it was perfect for helping to illuminate the rock face, which I used to my advantage for this shot. That was important to me because I didn’t want to have to resort to a flashlight to make the pictographs visible, as that seemed too artificial. The Milky Way was directly overhead, and while a bit faint in the strong moonlight, I feel like it provides a connection between our two worlds, those of the present and the past.
Dripping
Whenever I go on a cave tour, I always look up. Sometimes you can find some amazing things, hiding in plain sight, that everyone else just walks right by (or under). I was fascinated by the drips demarcating the ceiling cracks, and the rock floor that looked like it was soft-serve ice cream flowing downhill. Caves, even when lit for tours, are a low-light environment, which does complicate photography. But the hardest part about making art in the caves was deciding what to photograph, because it also meant deciding what not to photograph. I do get a bit of that “kid in a candy store” feeling when I’m in a cave with my camera.