CELESTIAL FIREWORKS (2015) < Previous | Next >
One of my best nights of watching a meteor shower during the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor shower in 2015. I’d driven about 5 hours away that day to the town of Folly Beach in South Carolina, There’s a huge stretch of oceanfront beach that is undeveloped that allows for pretty decent viewing of the night sky.
As I walked the beach area, I came across this dead tree standing by itself in the sand. The tide had started to recede and the foreground was filled with water, casting a great reflection of the tree and the sky. I set up and waited in growing anticipation of what my first ever night of meteor shower watch would surface. And it was absolutely gorgeous. As twilight faded and the skies darkened, the night sky was alive with bolts of light that flashed across the skies. Most of the meteors were out of the frame of my camera since the constellation of Perseus is pretty much diametrically opposite the milky way just after sunset. However there were a couple of bright fireballs that I managed to capture in my camera’s frame and one even made it into the foreground reflection. The lone tree just completed the image by personifying the experience of being in the moment to catch this spectacle.
Sadly the tree is no longer there - it was knocked down by one of the several hurricanes we’ve had since the time of the shot.
Thank you for your support!
Technical Details: Nikon D750 with a 16-35mm f/4 lens. 20 second exposure at ISO 5000.
