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As the time for the two week holiday that my wife Liz and I booked on the Mediterranean island of Crete drew closer I got more and more excited.
Crete is the most southerly point in Europe at a latitude of 35°N and as such gives a great view of the colourful galactic centre of our galaxy, the milky way, as compared with my home latitude of 53°N in North Wales, where the galactic centre just pops over the southern horizon at midsummer.
Add to that a new moon during our stay, meaning really dark nights and bright stars, and you can appreciate my excitement.
We spent the first week scouting possible locations for a night time shoot and then, as the moon reached its darkest condition, we set off into the mountains of central Crete to get away from the brightly lit coastal strip to the north to photograph the milky way and enjoy an evening under the stars.
We actually managed two night time photography sessions, shooting the hundreds of still images required to make two time lapse videos, Crete Milky Way Time Lapse Video #1 and Crete Milky Way Time Lapse Video #2.
This still image was taken at the same time as the first time lapse video, but with a portrait orientation rather than the landscape orientaion required for the video, in order to show more of the beautiful milky way.
Filename - crete milky way 01.jpg
Camera - Canon 6D
Lens - 14mm prime
Exposure - 15sec @ f2.8, ISO6400
Filters - None.
Location - Near Kera, Crete
This image - 533x800px JPEG
Conversion - Adobe Lightroom
Comments - Tripod, mirror lock up and cable release used to prevent camera movement.
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