"There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there, she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for."
Stairway to Heaven lyric from Led Zeppelin IV
I was standing under the stars along the shore of Lake Superior near Grand Marais, Minnesota.
It was a perfect summer night in a park along the lake. And no mosquitos!
The stairs seemed to beckon me towards the heavens. Seeing them, Stairway to Heaven started playing in my head. It’s a song with three distinct sections.
The slow tempo of the song’s first section featuring acoustic guitar and recorder matched the quiet wonder I felt initially.
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, photographic possibilities quickened my pulse. And the song’s second section with electronic instruments seemed to fit my new mood perfectly.
After taking and reviewing several images, the third section started playing in my head. My excitement echoed the final section’s up-tempo hard rock arrangement and Jimmy Page's epic guitar solo.
I walked away from my camera to just be there in the moment. Robert Plant's plaintive a cappella ending line, "And she's buying a stairway to heaven," started playing in my head. I had the chills.
You can hear Jimmy Page describe how Stairway to Heaven was created in this BBC interview at https://youtu.be/DDo4CA13LbY. It’s well worth experiencing.
The Shot
This image was taken in July of 2021. A single camera image couldn’t possibly capture what I could easily see with my eyes. Three images, without moving my tripod, were needed for this scene.
The first shot is a 15mm single 20 second exposure of the night sky at ISO 6400 and f2.8. While that photograph worked nicely for the stars and Milky Way, the foreground was mostly black.
The only light illuminating the foreground was from the stars and the Milky Way! It required six-minutes at ISO 6400 and f4 to capture enough light on the foreground. I took two shots to reduce the noise (grainy appearance) during post processing.
The two foreground shots were blended and darkened to match what I remembered seeing. The sky was replaced with the single night sky exposure.
The resulting image is above. It’s very close to what I remember from that special night.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus