Arches form a compelling foreground against which to frame the night skies. There are not many rock arches in Namibia, as one is wont to find In Utah. Spitzkoppe rock arch is of course very popular with the tourists, whilst the Bogenfels Arch in the Sperrgebeit is off limits to most, especially at night. So I set out on a quest to see if I could find some more and came across three more, one of which was in Tinkas and the second in Jakaalswater. There is however another very small arch on the private farm of Wustenquell, about 100 kms east of Swakopmund. The elephant like shape of the arch is quite photogenic and faces due south east, directly in the path of the rising milky way against which I framed it.

I recced the area as I always do during the day so that I am not fumbling around at night and formed the composition I had in my mind’s eye. After night fell, I first made an eight minute exposure of the foreground. The Sony A7rV is not the best in low light situations and I always turn on Long exposure noise reduction to mitigate the resulting hot pixels of a long exposure. This effectively doubles the time a shot can take. Once the  16 minutes wait was over, I then proceeded to light up the arch and its surroundings with my Luxli fiddle light panel set at a very low intensity and at a color temperature of 3200k. Numerous short exposures varying from 10 secs to 30 secs were taken from various angles. I then moved to a position which offered a clear view of the horizon and took a trio of 5 minute exposures of the sky. The long exposure of the foreground was screen blended along with the light painted subs and then processed to taste. The sky subs were stacked in PixInsight and then blended in with the light painted foreground.

All in all , it was a satisfying night out in the great outdoors and the stunning skies which Namibia has to offer.

Camera = Sony A7rV
Lens = Sony 12-24 F2.8 GM at 12mm
Tracker = Benro Polaris
Sky Exposure = 300 secs, f2.8, iso 800 stack of 3
Ground Exposure = 480 secs f2.8 iso 800 LENR, LLL
Software = Lightroom & Photoshop