amyth91

Reaching For The Stars

Probably had one of the best nights for the year. Pakiri is such an amazing place. Beautifully lit by the moon, we had some amazing foreground objects. Pakiri i...
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Probably had one of the best nights for the year. Pakiri is such an amazing place. Beautifully lit by the moon, we had some amazing foreground objects. Pakiri is surprising too, we were shooting and in no time Jonathan got stranded and cut off from mainland as the water gushed in. Luckily wasn't too deep and he had to get his feet wet.

I always wanted to take a silhouette selfie, so i found this dune and stood over it, reaching for the stars. It's amazing how small i look just standing few meters away from the camera. The stars the background are light years away and yet are big and bright. Makes us think how in-significant we are.

The image has milkyway rising in the background with scorpio in the center, one other object you might find interesting is the bright unusual star left of antares. It's not actually a star, but a planet "Saturn", if you have a decent scope, you can head out early in the morning to have a look at this beautiful planet.

When i came back this morning, read the sad news of "Leonard Nimoy" passing away, yes the one who played the role of "SPOCK" in everyone's favourite "Star Trek" series. It was probably his time and as he said:

“May I say that I have not thoroughly enjoyed serving with Humans? I find their illogic and foolish emotions a constant irritant.” — Spock

He probably has left back for the planet "Vulcan", probably setting down in the night sky as it is a planet near the star 40 Eridani, which is below Rigel in the constellation Eridanus.

This image dedicated to "Spock - Leonard Nimoy" may he Live Long and Prosper.......
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Canon EOS 6D

settings

ISO 3200 Shutter 20/1

upload_date

Feb, 2015

Views

1827

Likes

+346

Awards

Legendary Award

Featured

Contest Finalist in Standing At The Edge Photo Contest

Peer Award

+97

Superb Composition

+24

Top Choice

+14

Absolute Masterpiece

+12

Outstanding Creativity

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Superior Skill

All Star

Magnificent Capture

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Behind The Lens

Location

This photo was taken from the beautiful Pakiri Beach, roughly 90km North of Auckland, New Zealand. This is getaway place to enjoy the night sky away from the city lights.

Time

This is a memorable image that was dedicated to Leonard Nimoy. I was walking across the beach waiting for the milkyway to rise behind the hills, as I waited for the clock to strike 1 AM (Which is when the milkyway was set to rise), I sat on the dunes reading the news and learnt about the sad passing of Spock. As, the milkyway rose, I set my camera, ran up the dune and stood there to take this shot.

Lighting

Nothing special about the lighting apart from the only ones available from starlight. Although, I could say that Pakiri Beach is far away from any artificial light, which makes it a perfect place for stargazers and astrophotographers.

Equipment

This was shot using a Samyang 24mm, f/1.4 Lens on a Canon 6D

Inspiration

As a child, I wanted to be a cosmologist and have loved the stars for as long as I can remember, as I walked pass the dunes, they looked like a perfect spot for me to stand and create a photo that I had in mind for a while.

Editing

Astrophotography probably needs a lot of post-processing to bring out the details, there are so many different ways of doing it. This image was a single exposure, so I had to process the image separately for the sky and the foreground. I changed to whitebalance to cool down the tones and lifted the shadows in the foreground to get more detail. I later used local adjustment to fix minor issues.

In my camera bag

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 is one of my most trusted lenses for Astrophotography and it is always in my bag. Apart from that, I would have a Canon 50mm f/2.8 Lens and depending on what my plans are for the shoot, I might carry the Tamron 70-200 f/2.8 Lens. Oh! and have to mention my Canon 6D, without which nothing is possible. When I take my 70-200 Lens, I am mostly doing deep sky astrophotography and during those times, I will pack my iOptron Skytracker.

Feedback

Pakiri is just a stunning beach at night, anyone going out there can find a lot of places to shoot from. A tip would be to go around the pools to get the reflections of milkyway rising, but be aware, as the high tide comes, the pools start to flood in and you can be stranded in 10-15 feet of water (So, you better have some extra pair of shoes and socks with you) Also, if you walk along the beach, you can go right to the end and experience the best of Bioluminescence as the waves crash on rocks.

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amyth91

amyth91

Reaching For The Stars

Probably had one of the best nights for the year. Pakiri is such an amazing place. Beautifully lit by the moon, we had some amazing foreground objects. Pakiri i... Read more

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow amyth91

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Probably had one of the best nights for the year. Pakiri is such an amazing place. Beautifully lit by the moon, we had some amazing foreground objects. Pakiri i...
Read more

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