Photon Worshippers, photo by Steven Christenson.

Congratulations to my night-shooting buddy Steven Christenson, whose Photon Worshippers (above) is the winner of the Royal Observatory (Greenwich, UK) 2010 photo competition in the category People and Space. You can read the details on Steven’s Star Circle Academy blog.

Steven’s star trail photo Granite Park (below) was also short-listed for the competition.

As you may know, Steven will be teaching night photography with me at the Star Circle Workshop in the Alabama Hills of the Eastern Sierra, California in early November. Here’s information and registration (an early registration discount applies through September 11, 2010).

Steven’s prize-winning photo Photon Worshippers shows a well-known sea-stack formation with an arch off the Pfeiffer Big Sur beach in California. For a brief time, near the winter solstice, the setting sun casts its rays through the arch.

Steven’s ability at planning photography around astronomical events can be seen in this photo, as well as his personality: he is inclined to take things one step further—often with unexpectedly creative results. In the case of this photo, Steven saw that the entire scene could be better captured if he found an unusual, high vantage point, often a dangerous and difficult thing to do.