The Southern Lighthouse
From a distance, I gazed southward to the lonely lighthouse that silently guards the southern seas and the dark night. The arm of the Milkyway stretches out from the misty green sky glow that drifts above the horizon, along its length the red and black of nebulas weave themselves amongst the galactic plane. But no beams of light reach out from the lighthouse, for the lighthouse of Cave Point near Albany no longer serves as a beacon to ships. Instead it is fitted with electronic devices that warn ships through more ethereal means (GPS and radio), and the bright bulb at the top is just external lighting in memory of its solitary past.
Night landscapes are very dark when it is night (obviously), but especially with no moon and without the core above the horizon to provide even faint illumination. By opening up the lens a bit and using a 60 second exposure some detail in the landscape is possible to bring out without too much processing - but here the landscape is filled with dark vegetation apart from the road and the sea, and this vegetation appears to suck what little light there is making the foreground seem almost a solid black mass. Not great for photos, but sometimes we can't pick our opportunities, we just need to take it as it comes.
This is an 6 x 3 panel mosaic taken with a Canon EOS6d (modified) through a Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens stopped down to f/3.2. All camera and lens settings were kept the same for all panels, and all shots were taken one immediately after the other. The iOptron tracking mount was used for the sky and turned off for the foreground panels. Stitching in PTGui, colour balance, noise reduction, saturation and some brightness / contrast adjustment in Photoshop.
Below is a crop of the same image focusing on the lighthouse and the beginning of the Milkyway core that is still hidden below the horizon.
| IMG_0199 | 2019-04-05 | Cave Point Lighthouse, Torndirrup, Western Australia | EOS6D modified | Canon 50mm f1.2 | f/3.2 | HEUIB IDAS cut-filter | iOptron mount | ISO1600 | 60sec | 18 x panels |
