Namibia Bobby Bradley Namibia Bobby Bradley

Namibia Night Sky

I've been shooting the Milky Way for a couple months now on/or around new moons and the one thing that I've been really missing so far is a strong foreground to play with.  On this night, as sort of a happy accident, I finally got a chance to get something nice to balance against the night sky.  One of the volunteers at the center was giving a talk on the stars and we were all collectively star gazing for a little bit right next to where we share dinner every night.  It wasn't really a great spot to stargaze since the lights over the tables and in the kitchen were still ablaze, but we went ahead anyway.  I brought my camera along to take a few milky way shots to show some of the interns and to my amazement the lights from the building washed the grasses in front of us beautifully!  

I don't think that I could have known any better to plan this, but once I saw how the light on the grass built up on a long exposure I was very excited and reframed things a little.  I also tried out a new photoshop plugin called Astronomy Tools to get a subtle twinkle in the brightest stars in the sky.  It's intentionally subtle and I think adds a nice pop when you view the image large.  The plugin included a bunch of other tools that I haven't played with yet, but look very promising.

Processing:

Nikon D600 | Nikon 16-35mm

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