Milky and landscape shooting in Bali

Wow!!! Bali is such an amazing destination for photographing landscapes and of course my favourite, the Milky Way. Although it was a little cloudy when I was there, we were able to capture the Milky easily when the clouds broke in between as the environment there is just so clean with no haze and relatively very little pollutants in the skies.

Luck was definitely on my side as I managed to capture 2 awesome frames with shooting stars and meteors passing by the earth's atmosphere in my shots.

        

This shot was taken at Jatiluwih at the rice terraces. It was cloudy and misty but it was absolutely possible to get the Milky just when the clouds cleared a little bit.

This was taken from the porch in front of my hotel room at Amed. At that moment, it was even possible to see the Milky with naked eyes and it just makes it so much more easier to compose the shot.



Two more shots of the Milky at Bali. According to our guide, it was a rare sight to see the peak of Mount Agung in the 2nd pic so clear at night without cloud covers. Got lucky again I guess. :)

 























This is Mount Agung in daytime. Don't it look grand?



More of my nightscape shots can be found here.

How to locate the Milky Way on site

Just like to share the 2 favourite Android applications that I use when I'm on-site shooting the Milky Way. Couple these applications with Stellarium on your PC desktop, now you will practically be able to plan ahead where you intend to shoot and what is the best time to shoot as described in my previous article.

1. Google Sky Map

With a simple interface this application is easy to use. I particularly like the feature where I can search for the constellation Scorpius and the time travel feature to allows me to plan ahead of time where the Milky will appear a few hours later.

2. Planets

A visually pleasing application that shows more than just the Milky Way on the screen. Does not have a search feature. Supports time travel too like Google Sky Map. Available for both the Android and iOS devices.

Some of my latest shots of the Milky Way

Many people have asked me or commented that it's not possible to shoot the Milky Way in Malaysia. Well, not true at all. These shots was taken recently at Parit 14, Sg Besar about 20 minutes drive from Sekinchan.

Important things to remember is to find a relatively dark place with less light pollution to shoot. It is recommended to use a wide angle len so that you can include some foreground elements in the shot and a tripod plus a remote shutter cable is required.

Want to know more? Wait for my next post.