
She’s a hard road to the perfect night sky | Paul Le Comte
Location: Nugget Point Lighthouse | Date: 02/05/2022
Sometimes locations and shots are popular clichés because of their stunning beauty, the lighthouse at Nugget Point on the Catlins coast being one of those locations.
It may seem strange to include an image with so many clouds covering the Milky Way, but I think this image perfectly illustrates just how hard we have to work to get the perfect shot, and ultimately nature isn’t perfect, despite what you see on Instagram.
We all know this shot, the galactic core of the Milky Way rising above the lighthouse, cool blue tones and crisp sharp stars. However this night, after a 90min drive from Dunedin, within minutes of climbing the precarious track up the cliff and setting up my gear the clouds came in fast from the west. I rushed to get at least one super wide panorama in before I lost the view.
The sky was actually glowing this warm light due to the effect of the cloud cover and a decent sea mist off the coast, and I felt it would be disingenuous to ‘correct’ the white balance to the familiar cooler night sky blues.
As much as I’d love to capture the ‘perfect’ lighthouse astro image, not sure what that actually is and I’m super happy with this image.
Camera Settings
Nikon D750
Tokina 11-16mm
f/2.8
ISO 2500
25 seconds
7 image panorama
Media Details
Dimensions: 70cm x 50cm | Media: Framed Print
Sale Details
Not for sale!!
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