Royce Bair

Finding New Ways to Shoot & Edit Your Nightscapes

Two weeks ago, I invited Stephen Clayson to go out with me to the Ward Charcoal Ovens in Nevada to re-photograph an image I had done in October 2012 for National Geographic. My favorite photo from our recent trip was ...

What's Your Favorite Nightscape Season?

I love the spring (March - May) Milky Way in the Northern Hemisphere, where the Milky Way rises almost parallel to the horizon of my landscapes. The Milky Way also does that in the spring months (September - November) in the Southern Hemisphere.

I also like the vertical Milky Way we ge...

Rabbitbrush Highway to the Stars

On Monday, I went into the Nevada desert to photograph the autumn Milky Way. Sept 22 was the 1st day of fall. This is one of the darkest regions in the country: Highway 93. Love that straight up autumn Milky Way!

I also went to photograph the native Rabbitbrush that often establishes itself a...

Milky Way NightScapes eBook, version 2.0

Royce Bair's original version 1.1, "Milky Way NightScapes" eBook has been an astro-landscape photography standard reference book, worldwide, for over ten years. The late 2025-09-06 13:59:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Finding a New and Unique Nightscape

The above photo in the Upper Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef National Park was the result of being able to find a new and unique astro-landscape foreground location.

Despite the phrase, "there is no new thing under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), creative subjects and unique locations can still be found for your nightscape photography subjects — it just takes some research and be...

Home on the Range

The above image, that I took last week in the Grand Tetons, reminds me of the song, "Home on the Range" that was written by Dr. Brewster Higley and first published in 1876:

• Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
  Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
  Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
  And the sky is not cloudy all day.

That "ran...

Choosing What is Most Important

Bonding with my grandsons under a starry night sky: Recently, I was prepping for a private workshop, when I got a call from two of my grandsons, who wanted to learn astrophotography.

This was a very inconvenient time for me; however, opportunities to connect with your grandchildren don’t come around every day, so I dropped what I was doing and took them to a dark sky lo...

The Creative Path of Benjamin Everett

I first met Benjamin in 2016 on the North Shore of Kauai, where he was living at the time. I had been following him on Instagram, and asked if he wanted to meet up while I was photographing on the island. We photographed along the beach at sunset, had dinner together and spent time talking about our approaches to photogr...

NightScaper Resources for Learning

While I didn't invent "nightscape" astrophotography, many believe I have helped to shape this genre.

In 2015, I registered the domain name of "nightscaper.com" and created the first conference for nightscape photographers. Since 2019, we have had four c...

We talked with the "father of nightscape photography"

The late Alyn Wallace once called me the "founding father of landscape astrophotography." A local TV station picked up on that quote and used it as the title for a 3-minute live interview they did on me earlier this week.

If you're interested, here's a 2025-05-09 15:03:28 +0000 UTC View Post

The Universal Field Wrench

Have you ever had your camera slip on your tripod because the quick release plate between it and the tripod was not tight enough? The same thing can often happen to your ball head or your star tracker because the screw attachments are only "finger tight".

2025-04-22 20:31:39 +0000 UTC View Post

The Progression to Mirrorless

If you're a longtime Sony shooter, you might have been a full-frame mirrorless user since October 2013, when Sony launched the Sony Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R. It took Nikon and Canon five more years before they launched their full-frame mirrorless cameras, the Nikon Z7 (pictured above) and Canon EOS R, in September 2018 and October 2018, respectively.

Sony users vs. all others...

A New Tribute to Alyn Wallace

Alyn Wallace passed away a year ago, last March 28th, at the young age of only 34 years old. Many of us remember how much he accomplished and gave to the astrophotography world during the few short years prior to his untimely death.

Art Installation in remembrance of Alyn: Alyn's famil...

WATCH the Nightscape Presentation I Gave on March 18th

Those of you who registered for the Metro Denver Photography Meetup presentation that I gave two days ago, should have already received a link to the Zoom recording that went out via email a few minutes ago.

HERE'S A LINK TO THE VIDEO RECORDING <...

Nightscape Presentation via Zoom

Last month I mentioned that my Going to the Dark Side presentation may be coming to a city near you. On Tuesday, March 18th at 6:30pm (MDT) the Metro Denver Photography Group wil...

How Do You Get Close To Your Nightscapes?

I recently posted "Getting Closer and Staying Longer" — an article about using small self-contained camper trailers to get closer to your nightscape subjects, and stay there longer. LET ME KNOW HOW YOU ARE GETTING CLOSE TO YOUR NIGHTSCAPES (the way you do it most often).

Getting Closer and Staying Longer

Nothing improves your chances for getting great astro landscapes photos than just getting out as often as you can under a dark starry night sky.

Several years ago I decided to set a goal of not only getting out more often, but finding a way to get closer to my subject (dark sky locations) and being able to stay longer at those locations on...

My Nightscape Presentation May Be Coming to Your City

My latest nightscape presentation, "Going to the Dark Side," may be coming soon to a city near you. This is part of my "giving back" to our wonderful astro-landscape photography community. You can also help to initiate a presentation in your area by checking out my free 2025-02-06 18:45:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Light Weight Stands for Low Level Lighting

The BESNFOTO C-5188 Carbon Fiber Light Stand, shown above, is the lightest and most compact (when folded) of all the tripod-style stands I have ever used. I LOVE it! I've used it in the field for over two years, and it's held up well under all kinds...

Glass: The Photography Community Without Manipulative Algorithms or Ads

I just started using Glass. The Glass online platform has only been around for about three years, growing slowly and carefully by the efforts of its co-founders Tom Watson and Stefan Borsje, both with extensive background experience in designing and engineering at other platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. You ...

Alyn Wallace Tribute Page

The folks at the Night Photo Summit (January 24-26) have put together an Alyn Wallace Tribute page that includes a free link to his 2023 Night Photo Summit presentat...

Price Increases on Lightroom & Photoshop

Adobe announced earlier this month that they will be increasing the subscription pricing on Lightroom and Photoshop, effective January 15, 2025. This may or may not effect you. Let me explain...

Starting January 15, 2025, the price of t...