Travel Photo Challenge Winner - Capturing A Meteor Shower

[alpha-stormy]

Congratulations to @RidleyScottFan for winning our Travel Photo challenge! 

Pablo Javier Lucero is an astrophotographer from Argentina. He combines his love of astrophotography and coffee with "Astrofotografía y Café" where he teaches online courses combining his experience of specialty coffee with his love of astrophotography. What better way to stay awake at night while capturing stunning images of the sky, than by brewing a fresh cup of coffee. His astrophotography journey has helped him forge important and lasting friendships that he cherishes. 

We connected with him to learn more about him and his winning image: 

I live close to the mountains and recently discovered a few spots just an hour from home. One of my favorite places is Monviso, a mountain with an elevation of 3,841m—truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve visited in Italy. While exploring, I found a little town called Crissolo, the perfect base to park and venture deeper into the mountain.

I had planned to capture the Geminid meteor shower and was lucky to have perfect weather. Before dark, I set up my tent, made some coffee, and began shooting. When the temperature dropped to -15°C (5°F), I made a second coffee to keep warm. This image shows me preparing that coffee as I waited for the meteors.

Using my Sony A7 III, I felt confident in its ISO invariance, allowing me to shoot in almost any conditions with clean results. With my background in cinema, inspired by directors like Ridley Scott, I often storyboard my shots but also adapt in the moment. Seeing the city lights on the horizon, I wanted to capture the cozy atmosphere while contrasting the wilderness with the urban glow.

For this shot, I left my camera on a timelapse while I made coffee. Settings: f/1.8, 6s, ISO 2500, with a 2-6 second interval. I used a Manfrotto 290 Light tripod, my headlamp, and a small tent light to softly illuminate the landscape.

To process the 504 timelapse images, I used Lightroom to adjust the white balance and minimal edits to preserve the natural look, especially in the shadows. I enhanced the whites to make the stars pop and checked each frame for meteors. Finally, I used Photoshop to stack the images, capturing every meteor streak across the sky.

Thank you for sharing with us and getting involved in our photo challenge! 

Make sure you check out our latest photo challenge here.

[TrekRover]

beautiful photo @RidleyScottFan!

[RidleyScottFan]

Thanks so so much guys for this. Really honored to be featured on the forum.
I've been a Sony user and fan to be honest since I was a little kid thanks to my dad so, yep. Huge honor 🙂

[Criz Quinn]

Congratulations @RidleyScottFan🙌