Grizzly Night BW

Illuminating a cluster of snow-stacked pine trees within Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. This photograph was created via a 4 minute exposure, utilizing aerial light painting via a drone and powerful headlamp, along with a Graduated Neutral Density filter to darken the twilight sky and balance the exposure with artificial lighting. To capture this image, I utilized a powerful headlamp strapped to the bottom of a drone positioned directly above the trees. With the headlamp angled slightly outward (not perfectly straight down), it allows me to toggle the drone controls left and right, to rotate the drone left and right in the air, thus painting light onto a small group of trees for 20-30 seconds. After painting one group of trees, I move onto the next. I'm never precisely aware of the exact spots I'm hitting, or with how much light. However, throughout my career of shooting complex exposures with natural lighting or artificial lighting, I have a good idea of where to start. Typically, I c