Southern Cross

The smallest and one of the most prominent constellations, Southern Cross shine through forest trees in Murramarang National Park of Australia.

As noted by the photographer “I was in a campground on the east coast of Australia, at Pebbly Beach, in New South Wales. I looked up from my campsite that night, and sitting right in a break in the forest canopy sat the Southern Cross. For us Northern Hemisphere folks, this is quite a sight.

Naturally I wanted to take a shot of what I was seeing. But in my panorama format, most of the image would have been solid black, as the forest hid most of the star filled sky. The solution was to use my white LED flashlight to ‘paint’ in the eucalyptus trees that were reaching into the sky. I opened the camera for 30 seconds, and during that exposure, I painted the scene with my flashlight. Thanks to digital, I was able to view my results immediately, and was able to make adjustments to my “painting”, telling me where to hold back the light, and also where to let it linger in order to illuminate the scene I wanted to capture that night”.