It has struck me recently how many creative and talented colleagues and friends I have and I wanted to showcase some of their creations and stories for you.
I love all of Mike’s photographs but I really wanted to share his astrophotography or night sky photography with you because it is not something that most people take (good) photos of and I think his shots are pretty amazing! I also like the wonderful places that Mike goes in order to take his photographs: Patagonia, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands to name a few. Many of Mike’s night sky photos have been taken on New Zealand’s Great Barrier Island – the first island in the world to receive International Dark Sky Sanctuary status. Sanctuaries are in remote areas that have few threats to the exceptional quality of their starry nights. But he has also taken some amazing photos from or near his home in Wellington, New Zealand.
I asked Mike to share some of his journey (and photos), along with some tips and tricks:
When did you first get into night sky photography?
I first got interested in night sky photography on my first photography trip to Iceland with David Noton and Ao Thor. We photographed a lake with an amazing aurora display overhead, and David taught us exposure and focusing tips. I got the bug from then!
Iceland Aurora
What do you find most fun/ interesting/ challenging about it?
The bulk of my night photography is wide field landscape astrophotography – a mix of night sky and foreground, rather than just night sky. I love trying to come up with compositions with both foreground interest and a night sky that works well with the foreground. All while it is pitch black!
You are at the mercy of nature more than most other types of photography. A cloudy sky can easily ruin a shoot, or you might be waiting for hours for the right gap in the clouds. So sometimes your planned shoot ends up being foiled by the conditions, but you may find a great alternative in a nearby location.
When I first started shooting night skies, I would just turn up at a location and hope for the best. But I’ve learned that the best results are generally achieved with good planning and preferably with some daytime scouting of a location too. Photopills is a great app for your iPhone or Android phone that helps with planning. You can put yourself in any location in the world via an app, and work out what the sun, moon, and milky way are doing at any particular time. Once you get used to it it’s invaluable.
I’ve been lucky enough to do a photography workshop in Spain with the Photopills crew. That gave me an opportunity to learn tricks and tips from photography gurus as well as how to use the app well.
Do you need any particular photography gear or is it about using your camera in a different way?
Most modern DSLRs or mirrorless cameras with manual settings will give you good results.
A decent tripod is essential, particularly if you live somewhere a little breezy like Wellington. I have a carbon fibre Really Right Stuff tripod that can stand higher than my head, and barely moves in a wind. The photograph of the Icelandic church with a hint of aurora was taken in near gale force winds. I was literally hanging myself off the tripod to stop it moving in the wind.
Icelandic Church with hint of aurora
Once you have a sturdy platform for your camera, the other two tricks are exposing for long enough that you get sufficient light in to expose details without getting star trails, and focusing the camera. The easiest way to focus is to use Live View and manually focus on the brightest star you can see, or on a distant light. Then the focus should stay set for all of your shots.
What sort of camera do you have?
I’ve used a few different systems over the years, but currently use a Nikon D850. I’ve been using that for ~3 years. It’s a crazy mix of high resolution and great low-noise performance. I do most of my night shots with Sigma Art lenses – the 14mm 1.8 and 40mm 1.4. Both are really great quality for night photography and provide shots with sharp, accurately shaped stars.
I note that some of your photos are composites of very many shots – how do you put them all together?
I shoot two types of composites. Some are stacked shots where I take 10-15 images and then stack them together. This reduces digital noise by amplifying the ‘light’ features and removing graininess or noise from the dark details. There are several programs that provide that functionality, but I find Starry Landscape Stacker (Mac only) to be great.
I sometimes shoot a long exposure (maybe 2-3 minutes at a lower ISO setting) for the foreground and then one or more shorter exposures at a higher ISO setting for the night sky, and then combine them in Photoshop. This gives the best combination of low-noise foreground detail and sky detail. My shots are always true to the scene though – I don’t, for example, take a sky from one location and combine that with a foreground from another location. Or shoot a foreground during the day and then the same location at night to combine them.
-
- Milky Way Rising – Wellington NZ
-
- Wellington NZ
-
- Wellington NZ
The last type of multiple shots I use are for panoramas. I do this to try and get the whole Milky Way arc in the image. This sometimes takes several rows of shots to then combine in panorama software. It also requires a lot of patience! Some of my panoramas are made up of >50 shots.
Great Barrier Panorama
I see that you went to Great Barrier Island on a Matariki Photography Course – how did that come about?
I first visited Great Barrier Island for the Matariki* workshop with Mark Gee. Mark is a very talented night sky photographer and has the process down to a fine art.
I’ve now been to Great Barrier Island four times and I have withdrawal symptoms when I’m not there! The last two times I’ve spent shooting with my friend Carol Comer who lives on the Island. We’ve been known to do all-night shoots at times. Carol knows some great locations and is a very talented photographer. She also runs astrophotography workshops – look her up if you want a great guide https://www.carolcomer.nz/
*The night sky is woven into Maori culture with Matariki, the rise of the Pleiades constellation, signalling the Maori New Year. In the Māori language, Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising. Matariki is traditionally celebrated with education, remembrance and the planting of new trees and crops signaling new beginnings. It is the optimum time for new harvests, and ceremonial offerings to the land-based gods Rongo, Uenuku and Whiro to ensure good crops for the coming year. In 2020, Matariki begins on 13 July.
You can follow Mike on Instagram @nzer.mike
The copyright in all images belongs to Mike. The images have been reproduced on this blog with his permission. Please contact Mike via his Instagram account if you are interested in any of his images.
Leave a Reply