Out of Norm Travels

I had just made an unforgettable trip which took some 8 hours and 1,109 miles (1,784km) for me to reach Palu in Indonesia from Singapore to witness my first Solar Eclipse. Palu is to be the most optimal place to see the total Solar eclipse in 2016 which is only visible along a narrow strip on Earth. This natural phenomenon is rare as totality only happens when the Moon is close enough to Earth to completely cover the Sun when there is a New Moon. The word 'eclipse' comes from a Greek word meaning abandonment which literally is seen as the sun abandoning the earth. In Chinese, this is called 天狗食日 which speaks of a dragon or demon who is devouring the sun. Ancient Chinese would produce great noise and commotion by banging on drums and pots to frighten away the dragon during an eclipse. When I did the set up and test shots, I got slightly worried when I saw a patch of clouds across the Sun (as you can see in the photo below) - this is because cloud cover can easily ruin th...

Astro or Star gazing is a new genre of photography for me and frankly quite intimidating and foreign territory for a city girl like me.  Stars are something present but unseen in many parts of the little island city due to the vast amounts of light pollution. However, the first impression of astro following a pre trip workshop is how complicated the entire process is with different considerations for the taking a decent photograph.  Naturally, my expectations of getting something decent from my first astro photography trip to mount Bromo is understandably on the low side. What I got out of the trip is definitely more than I expected.  The amazement of seeing the millions of stars clearly for the first time reminded me of the many reasons I took up this amazing art form. It helps when it takes some 4 hours by van to reach Bromo from Surabaya and although it is near to some villages, the level of light pollution is low. Justin our pro was aware of the daunting natu...