Arise

The Milky Way rises over the sand dunes at Stockton, outside of Newcastle.

There beyond the dunes
Where a guiding light shines
You spin slowly
Stretching out and out
Time unravels
Strand by delicate strand
And slowly
Ever so slowly
You arise
And we stop
And we breathe
And we love

Soon after the lockdown here lifted, I drove up to meet up with some of the legends from Newcastle for some astrophotography in the Stockton Sand Dunes, an area I hadn’t been to before.

It was wonderful catching up with the crew again, and a really successful night out.

For this image, I took about 20 images - all for 10 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 4000 - then stacked them using the program Starry Landscape Stacker to even out the noise. Unfortunately I forgot to take a separate shot for the foreground as I normally do… mostly because this was the first time I’d shot astro in a long time thanks to the lockdown we had just been in!

In the spirit of reconciliation, I would like to acknowledge the Worimi people, the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which I took this photo. I also acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Elders past and present, and celebrate the diversity of Aboriginal peoples and their ongoing cultures and connections to country.

The details for this image are:

• Nikon D750 with Nikon 20m f/1.8

• 10s

• f/2.8

• ISO4000

• Sirui W-1204 tripod with K-20x Ball Head⁣