Venturing out to a remote property under the vast Australian sky sparked a transformative journey for me over a decade ago. Captivated by a spontaneous photograph taken one starlit night from around a campfire, the pull of the stars took hold.
From those humble beginnings with a pocket digital camera, my passion for photography and astronomy began to unfold. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, I spent countless nights over several years sometimes travelling hundreds of kilometres each night searching for that perfect shot. That perfect shot for me at the time, was capturing a night landscape or subject in the foreground and our Milky Way in one photograph.
Photography introduced me to the fundamentals and intricacies of capturing light post-and-processing techniques, from learning the three pillars of photography (shutter speed, aperture, and ISO) to the value of a good tripod, a wide-angle lens, and a remote shutter release.
Transitioning into astronomy, telescopes and eyepieces replaced the traditional camera lens and my attention was drawn from earthly subjects to entities within the cosmic expanse.
Now, I can unearth and capture craters on the moon, stars, nebulas, galaxies, and planets. Yet, with each discovery, I'm humbled by the vastness of the universe, realising that the more I learn, the more questions I have.