Reach Up & Catch the Stars!

The Milky Way sets over a dead tree standing amongst spinifex as Uluru looms in the background.

There is something so intriguing about dead trees and the Milky Way. I love the starkness of the bare limbs branching off into space; a testament to nature, resilience, and beauty. On our workshop we spent lots of time keeping an eye out for trees we thought might make for interesting compositions, but luckily for us, this one had been scoped out previously by the always amazing @jaydidphoto and @tscharke.

This one is located along the Kuniya Walk, where it stands alone amongst the spinifex, and if you get there at the right time it looks like it is cupping the core of the Milky Way.

This was our second day there - but our first morning - and we were up at 4:30am to head out the door and catch the core as it set. The sky was crystal clear, but it was also absolutely freezing! If we weren't awake when we got there, we certainly were once the we had stood around in single digit temperatures for an hour photographing this incredible scene.

I am so incredible thankful to Jay and Luke and their @astroworkshops for providing me the opportunity to explore this amazing area.

This image is 18 photos of the Milky Way stacked in Starry Landscape Stacker to help reduce noise, and one long exposure photo to capture the detail in the foreground.

The details for this image are:

• Nikon D750 with Samyang 14mm f/2.8

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

• 20s

• f/2.8

• ISO6400