Shutter therapy took an unexpected turn this weekend. I took a break from what I do normally and took on a journey to many firsts:
1) My first trip to Kuantan, Pahang
2) My first time seeing the Milky Way and shooting it (I told dear friend Sameer I have seen it, but now that I tried to recall I actually have not seen it)
3) My first time shooting everything night sky, besides the Milky Way I also shot Star Trails
4) My First time using the amazing function in the OM-D, Live Composite setting
5) My first time shooting steel wool
6) Basically, this was my first all out landscape and night sky photography outing.
I was travelling with a HUGE group of photography enthusiasts from Photographic Society of Petaling Jaya (PSPJ) to Kuantan, Pahang, a state on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This was quite an adventurous photography outing, with activities planned to fill the shooting hours all the way till the darkest hours of the night. I departed with more than 30 photographers from Kuala Lumpur, driving about 3 hours to arrive at a sea-side location at ungodly 4am in the morning, and shooting started immediately with Milky Way beaming down on us in the dark, beautiful skies of East Coast Malaysia. The shooting went on non-stop with very little sleep in between and boy, what an exhilarating and fulfilling weekend, both for my photography self, and my soul!
After work on Friday evening, I headed home, packed up enough change of shirt for 2 days adventure, and brought along the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II with several M.Zuiko lenses, 12mm F2 (primary lens for this trip), 9-18mm F4-5.6, 25mm F1.8, 45mm F1.8 and 75-300mm. I used all lenses in this trip. I also brought along a tripod, which was an absolute necessity for almost all photographs shown in this entry.
I will as usual, share my experience from the trip, with plenty of photographs taken, and also what went behind each photographs, what I have learned and what could have been improved.
Let's start with the night sky. The Stars. It was a Sky Full of Stars (cue Coldplay song).
12mm F2, 25sec, F2, ISO3200