So with what will be one of my last Milkyway sessions in the North Island for the foreseeable future (more on that to come on the blog), it was nice to revisit a spot I went to with Meghan Maloney and Andrew Francombe back in 2023.
This shot I took using the Sigma 35mm in peasant (35mm crop) mode, which planted the idea of using crop mode on the GFX for astro rather than continuing to use the X-T4 and XF 16mm 1.4.
As much as I like that combo, the GFX offered better dynamic range and more megapixels so seemed like a waste to not use it. So with that I tossed up between the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 and Samyang/Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 - as I preferred this framing (the XF 16mm f/1.4 is a 24mm equivalent when you factor its x1.5ish crop factor). So the Sigma 35mm was traded in along with a bunch of other gear at the end of 2023 with the goal of simplifying both the GFX and X-Series kits. The Rokinon was available via Amazon for a reasonable price in EF mount which would work with my existing Fringer Adaptor -so I snapped it up.
So fellow first Milkyway of the season man, James came and collected me for an early mornings shoot up on the Coromadel. Sadly the skies proved to be cloudier than expected so I was left with this resulting image:
If i’m honest the clouds aren’t the worst here, makes for a slightly more dynamic image but did limit how I was able to shoot and process this image. The clouds ruled out stacking so I had to acheive this in a single frame which turned out okay. I’d have preferred to get a better foreground frame to blend in but decided to just leave the foreground from the original here. Thankfully the dynamic range of the GFX100S allowed a reasonable amount of detail.
With that the decision was made to head up the coast for some sunrise as it was only about three hours away after we finished up. We landed on Te Karo bay - also known as Sailors Grave.
My landscape efforts sucked pretty bad for the morning but grabbed a shot or two of the surfers who showed up just before sunrise.
And while I was at it I grabbed an opportunistic shot of James doing the same thing.
Thats it for this post, more to come on the move south!