Tejus Shah | Design, Photography, Creative Consulting

This weekend on May 23rd I took a trip late in the evening to the Francis E. Walter Dam in White Haven, PA. I had been researching and scouting this location online for about a month. My original plan was to go the weekend before because of the new moon, however, due to poor weather, that fell through. This weekend was much better though—clear skies, long weekend, low humidity...

It wasn't without some struggle. Temperatures that night dropped to the 30s. A friend of mine met me at the location had car trouble just as he arrived. My camera's battery was completely drained even though it had been fully charged the week before without any usage. The location, as far as a scenic spot, kind of sucked too. It would have been nice to see the lay of the land while there was still some light, but that was no longer an option by the time we arrived.

Our fortunes turned for the better though. My friend just happened to have a power inverter for the car, so I was able to charge my batter for half hour, while I watched him shoot. I got just enough juice in the battery to last the rest of the night. We double checked his car as well, and the oil level was low so when he left, he stopped at the nearest WaWa and took care of his car. Even though the spot we were initially shooting stunk, after he left I went to a couple nearby locations and got some good ones.

All-in-all, not a bad night!

These first two shots are from the initial area we were standing—a two lane road that crosses the dam with a fairly steep drop-off on either side. These were shot between 12:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m.

After my friend left, I drove down the road, not more than 1/4 mile. This is still part of the dam, but looked much more interesting. Approximate time is 2:15 a.m.

Finally, at around 2:45 a.m., I decided to call it quits. My hands were freezing and it was super dark and a little spooky. All I could hear running through my head was the Jeepers Creepers song. I drove back but just before coming to the main road, there was a turn off into a small park.

I think I'm going to explore this location again, now that I have a better understanding of it. It's easily accessible which is a plus. Only problem is that there is still considerable light pollution (all the yellow that you see towards the horizon).

Back in March 2015, a friend and former colleague of mine hired me for some portrait shots of her. She was winning an award for excellence in pharmaceutical marketing. She wanted a few shots at her agency in a nontraditional manner. We set up a day in early April and popped off a bunch. Now that the article is out, I can finally share!

So, congrats to Jeenal Shah for receiving the ELITE Leader of the Future Award presented by PM360. You can see the article about her and the shot they chose from the following link

https://www.pm360online.com/elite-leader-of-the-future-jeenal-shah-of-sudler-new-york/

As for the rest of the shots, here are some select shots from the shoot.

Recently I won a photography contest and received a trip to the Barcéló Bávaro Beach in the Dominican Republic for 4 days/3 nights. I decided to go from April 15-18 to coincide with the new moon. This gave me the opportunity to shoot the Milky Way as well.

Here are some of my favorites from the trip.

The last shot I took being showcased first. I had to run for this one.

One of the first shots I took. A long, 8 second exposure mid-day with a 10-stop ND.

Annnnd the MILKY WAY!

Some sunrises...

Finally... some evening long exposures on the beach: a 2 minute and 5 minute, respectively.

This past Sunday, I ventured out to Stokes State Forest with a friend of mine very early in the morning to get to the peak of Sunrise Mountain. Unfortunately, we found the road up was closed due to the snow. So we decided to find another location near by.

The biggest challenge we faced, aside from getting to a proper location was dealing with the light pollution. New Jersey isn't very friendly when it comes to dark skies, so even going northwest to a dark forest area doesn't solve this problem, but as you can see, it can be done. 

What amazed me the most was the sheer amount of stars that came out. When we got to this lake, our alternative location, the sky was completely clear. Looking up made you feel like you were in an observatory theater looking up at the screen to see all the stars surrounding you. I can only image how it is out west where there is considerably less light pollution.

The following two shots are my first attempts at capturing the Milky Way's galactic core. My compositions aren't fantastic, but this trip was more of a learning experience. 

This first set is from the Lambertville side looking towards New Hope.

This shot is from the middle of the bridge. A bit difficult to take as there was a lot of shaking on the bridge every time a car passed by (enough to ruin a shot at least). This was originally a 4 minute exposure cut short to 2 minutes because a car was about to come through.

These are from the opposite way—New Hope looking towards Lambertville.

This last set is of an old, dilapidated building in Lambertville I happened to stumble upon. Very interesting structure.

If you would like to to use any of these images or purchase prints, please send me a message at hello @ tejusshah . com.

Trust me, she's happy (or at least will be when she opens her presents). Ten years down the line though, she'll look back at this at yell at me. I don't care. I love her very much.

This image was shot with two exposures. The tree at 2.5 seconds, f/16 with no flash. For my daughter, I had one flash camera right for fill at 1/32 power, and another flash camera left on a grid at 1/2 for the key light. Merge the two images in Photoshop to create the final.