Ben Coffman’s Night Sky Photography: Crater Lake, Oregon Coast and Palouse

Oregon photographer Ben Coffman shoots the night sky the way other landscape photographers shoot sunsets: from Crater Lake, the Cascade high country, the Pacific coast and the canyons of eastern Washington. His Milky Way images always have a strong foreground, whether a glowing tent, a lighthouse or a mountain reflected in still water.

Crater Lake and the Oregon Cascades at night

Coffman has called Crater Lake National Park his favourite place to photograph. It is Oregon’s only national park, and the lake fills the caldera left when the volcano Mount Mazama collapsed about 7,700 years ago. At 594 metres (1,949 feet) it is the deepest lake in the United States. The rim gets an average of more than 11 metres of snow a year, so winter visits mean snowshoes, and Coffman has spoken of going back for snowshoeing and snow camping.

His Crater Lake set includes the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaks each April, and Venus and Jupiter rising together over the caldera.

Further north, the photographs move to the Mount Hood area and the alpine meadows of Jefferson Park, below Mount Jefferson. At Trillium Lake he caught the northern lights glowing green and pink across the water. Lost Lake is known for its view of Mount Hood, and still nights there double the stars in its reflection.

The Oregon coast and Palouse Falls

On the coast, the dark Pacific horizon helps. Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach is a 72-metre (235-foot) basalt sea stack, formed from lava flows 15 to 17 million years ago; you can walk to its tide pools at low tide, and tufted puffins nest on it from spring to late summer. Other frames show a waterfall spilling onto a beach and a lighthouse throwing its beam under the Milky Way.

Inland, Palouse Falls in south-east Washington drops about 60 metres into a basalt canyon carved by the Ice Age Missoula floods. It became Washington’s official state waterfall in 2014 and lies in Palouse Falls State Park, which has a campground and overlook trail. An abandoned farmhouse in Oregon and a lone figure in silhouette complete the set.

Ben Coffman on planning Milky Way photography

In a 2014 interview with Twisted Sifter, Coffman said his love of the night sky goes back to the early 1990s and public-radio programmes such as StarDate and Earth and Sky. He compared a night landscape to playing “Happy Birthday” in a minor key: the same scene, but darker and wilder.

Most of the work, he said, is research. A strong Milky Way depends on moon phase, weather and light pollution, which leaves only four or five good nights a month for about six months of the year. He follows weather and cloud-cover forecasts closely.

In the field, his gear has a fixed place in his pack so he can find it by feel. He has memorised the aperture clicks and infinity focus point on his lenses and can change lenses and batteries in total darkness, so he rarely switches on a headlamp and loses his night vision.

Challenges of shooting the night sky

Coffman lists light pollution, cloud, dew on the lens, noisy high-ISO files and simple cold: Oregon nights can be freezing even in July. Then there is what he calls the “boogeyman factor”: deer crashing through bushes, porcupines, pigeons bursting out of abandoned houses and owls that take off right beside the tripod.

He prefers shooting with other photographers at night, though he admits he does his best work alone. At the time he was planning a night-sky photo tour to Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail in Peru. He also wanted to photograph the southern Milky Way from Africa or Australia. His advice to beginners: treat photography as self-expression, ignore trends and photograph what appeals to you.

Stargazing tips for dark-sky trips

The US National Park Service’s stargazing guidance matches Coffman’s approach:

• Avoid the days around full moon, when the Milky Way is washed out.
• Summer and autumn evenings are best for the Milky Way in the northern hemisphere; meteors can be seen all year.
• Use a red torch or headlamp to protect your night vision, and give your eyes time to adjust.
• Dress for the weather and look for ranger-led star parties in national parks.

Scout your foreground in daylight, then return after dark. For moving light, watch Ronn Murray’s real-time aurora film, browse our night-sky gallery or see Griffin Lamb’s mountain-lake photographs.

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