Malcolm King, Bridge to the Stars (SINGLE SHOT 2025)

It was a freezing cold winters night on a country road on the Northern Tablelands NSW but I knew that just before midnight the Milky Way would be nicely positioned looking down the road. The camera was a Nikon Z6ii, with a Nikon 20mm lens. The bridge, road and paddock were photographed at f4, ISO 1600, 2 x 240 second exposures. The stars at f1.8, ISO 1600, at four angles of elevation of the camera, with 6 x 15 second exposures at each angle. The star images for each angle were stacked then the 4 stacked images were stitched together. The stars and foreground were then blended together. Fog had just rolled in then rolled away but remnants of it gave some of the brightest stars haloes, giving the image a somewhat ethereal appearance.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.