At Night: Tri-County Education Program

Low light photography workshop held at Chinati Foundation for Marfa High School students.

What does low light photography have to do with dark skies?

We found out quickly at a series of workshops we hosted for students throughout the Big Bend. We learned quickly—you need some light to capture a photograph at night, but lighting is used in an intentional way to help illuminate a certain subject. In our work to help protect dark skies, we most often encourage people to use only the light they need and shield it to intentionally shine the light down to the ground, rather than let it leak upward, which creates light pollution in the night sky. Turns out, low light photography could help us illustrate the concepts of shielding lights for dark sky preservation quite easily.

Low light photography workshop at Presidio High School.

The program was in conjunction with the Museum of the Big Bend's upcoming exhibition, At Night, a photography show spotlighting one of our greatest natural resources—the dark sky—while also building awareness about light pollution and its disruption of wildlife and ecological balances.

We used cell phones because they are the tool that everyone has in their pocket. Participants got tips for using their smartphone cameras in low light conditions, gained knowledge on how to capture quality subject matter, lighting, framing, point of view, and simple post-capture editing techniques. 

Professor Steve Goff with Presidio ISD students during the workshop.

Workshops were hosted in partnership with Chinati Foundation's Education Department and Texas Photographic Society; they were taught by Professor Steve Goff, Photography Department Head, Odessa College and President of the Texas Photographic Society Board of Directors.