Fire of the Night

At first glance, you might see the only sign of mankind in this image as the small boat hiding in the mist. It’s an unusual composition with the bright stars coupled with a glowing horizon, and something that would normally be impossible to photograph. This isn’t sunrise or sunset in the distance, but rather light pollution from a nearby town.

With the clouds overhead, I needed to create an exposure fast enough to prevent the blurring of their details. This required an extremely wide aperture of F/1.2, which is unconventional for landscape work but necessary for this composition. The result 6-second exposure was fast enough to achieve the desired effect, and the 50mm focal length framed the scene perfectly.