Interesting Photo of the Day: Light Painting & Milky Way

Interesting Photos  •  Milky Way Photography

If somebody showed me an image of the Milky Way, I’d expect the Milky Way to be the outstanding feature of that image. And for me, this has almost always been true. Nothing can be in the same frame as the Milky Way and beat it – nothing outshines the star clusters. But, the following image by photographer Rod Evans totally proved me wrong this time around:

“Light Painting Under the Milky Way” by Rod Evans (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

Interestingly, the image is a single exposure of 43 seconds that Evans took with a Canon 650D at 10mm, f/4.5, and ISO 3200. He made the spiral shape by hand using a Nitecore P26 torch attached to a blue acrylic tube. He also taped an orange M&M’s container on the top end for the orange color.

The level of symmetry in this image is spectacular. It’s not only in the reflection of the beautiful light painting on the ocean rock pool, but in the pattern itself. Although it was drawn by hand, the spiral pattern appears symmetrical all around. The immaculate precision with which Evans has drawn it is praiseworthy. This is how good you can get when you practice for a long time.

“This was my first try on the night, but I’ve had a lot of practice at this type of shape over the last 6 months or so.”

If somebody told me that this light painting was done by a robot, I would’ve believed it straight away. What about you?