During my time in West Virginia some years ago, I had the honor of assisting a photographer named George Bragg, who worked with GEM Photography. He was an ex coal-miner turned photographer and he helped me learn more about landscape photography, but also, how to photograph at night. George passed away about a year ago, but I’ll never forget his lessons.

Lesson one:

When photographing at night, use a tripod, light your subject, and take long exposures.

Lesson two:

When taking a long exposure with the shutter open for about twenty seconds, go stand the image really still for about half that time before moving out of the image in order to render a ghost portrait.