My light-painting on Alyn Wallace's night photography book
It doesn't happen often to be part of a photo book, especially if the book is by one of the most active and appreciated astro-photographers on YouTube: Alyn Wallace.
A tribute to Alyn Wallace
Before I share the story of how my light-painting made it into his book, I want to acknowledge that Alyn passed away two years ago. I never had the chance to meet him in person, but his work, content, and YouTube guides have been an immense source of inspiration for my photography. His generosity in sharing knowledge and his genuine passion for the craft continue to influence how I approach night photography and light-painting.
Why I followed Alyn's work
I have been following Alyn Wallace for a few years, fascinated by night photography and his way of telling its various aspects—technical and artistic—with the voice that only those who follow their passion can have. His video content is pleasant, well-argued, never banal. Though YouTube photography channels risk repetitiveness with countless photos of the Milky Way from different angles and branded promotions, Alyn managed to avoid that trap through genuine expertise.
Alyn was from Wales and told about the territory beautifully. In fact, the first video I saw on his channel was about an epic alignment of the full moon and a castle using a 600mm telephoto lens.
Over the years I never missed his monthly updates on the night sky and field tests of lenses suitable for the extreme conditions of night darkness. This topic interests me greatly since I have been creating light-painting photographs for quite a few years and am always looking for ways to improve or take my work to the next level. One of the best ways is to learn from the masters, right?
Photography aside, one of Alyn's videos I appreciated most was the one where he tells the story of his career. How he decided to change his life by abandoning certain habits and focusing on a more precise path. It's worth watching also because he managed to balance the brightness of the scene beautifully throughout the entire 28 minutes, from sunset to night.
Alyn Wallace's book
The book is titled Photographing the Night Sky – technique, planning and processing and in more than 500 pages across 9 chapters it is full of knowledge on all aspects of landscape photography in darkness.
An encyclopedic work, perhaps the best and most complete that can be found. The chapters deal with fundamental topics such as instrumentation, camera settings and multiple (long) exposure techniques that allow for sharper images.
Then it moves on to notions of astronomy, tips on how to plan photographic expeditions and take home results with the right settings and by choosing the most suitable locations—some surprisingly ideal for the purpose.
It concludes with the inevitable chapter dedicated to photographic post-production, essential for night photography and which serves to further push the quality of images.
My photograph in the light-painting section
On page 140 the book discusses light-painting, intended as a way to enrich the foreground subject with details that otherwise would be unnecessarily dark and devoid of interesting character.
I must admit I have done this many times during my solo astro-photography outings in Salento. But my contribution to this fantastic book is one of the photographs I am most proud of from the 2021 season: a dance with the crescent moon as the backdrop and reflections on sea water to enrich the composition.
The photograph features Cristina (thank you!) and was taken at 70mm, f/2.8, ISO 640 and 3 seconds. A single exposure that, as Alyn noted, makes the image even more special.
In the section dedicated to creative light-painting, my photograph is accompanied by a creation from Tei Pelant, who illuminates landscapes with lights mounted on a drone. We are on page 145.
I am incredibly proud to have unexpectedly received the request from the editor of fotoVUE and Alyn to be part of such a fantastic book, which I recommend to everyone. Proud because one of my creations was chosen to represent an art that I love and that has committed me for 7 years despite countless difficulties. Proud because it is worth more than a million likes and pushes me to do better and better.
Thanks to Mick from fotoVUE for his kindness, and thanks to Alyn Wallace, whom I admire not only for his work but also for his genuine engagement with the photography community.
Learn more and purchase the book: https://alynwallacephotography.com/
Follow Alyn Wallace's legacy on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlynWallace