Altiplano Starry Rain

Stars motion is captured above majestic landscape of Altiplano in this multi exposure digital startrail image. The Altiplano (Spanish for high plain) is where the Andes are at their widest. Occupying parts of Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, it is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet. Unlike the Tibetan Plateau, the Altiplano is dominated by the massive peaks of active volcanoes to the west, the Atacama Desert, the driest area on the whole planet, to the southwest, and the humid Amazon rainforest to the east. The magnificent volcano in this image is Nevado Sajama, the highest mountain of Bolivia and only a dozen or two kilometers from the border with Chile.

As noted by the photographer “For this adventure TWAN photography mission I made an 8-day trip to Altiplano, 5100 km drive with 4×4 car, starting from Santiago in Chile and including several days of camping above 4000 meters with very cold temperature at night. It was hard to stay outside the tent for the photography but my motivation was very high for this TWAN mission. For this sequence of images I was located at Lake Chungara in Chile (one of the highest lakes in the world) to have a good view of Nevado Sajama Volcano. At 4570m above sea level the lake was partly frozen. This image is a result of 20 shots of 10 minutes exposure. The image might look artificial because of sharpness but this is only the result of the ideal location and atmosphere transparency of Altiplano.”