Living in the city is awesome, but there’s so much light pollution that you’re unable to fully appreciate the majesty of the universe above you at night. The San Pedro de Atacama region of Northern Chile has some of the darkest and cleanest skies on Earth, so you can imagine how good this night time lapse looks before you even watch it. (Hint: it’s amazing).
Turns out that these amazing images were actually captured not using professional equipment, but often rudimentary makeshift gear after an airline lost photographer, Nicholas Buer’s luggage:
In my opinion an adventure is not complete unless there are challenges, and this trip was no different. My luggage was lost for the first 6 days I was there so for half of my trip I had no tripods and no motion control equipment. I shot many time-lapses in this film with my cameras on buckets weighted down with rocks! it was far from ideal but I was determined not to miss an opportunity to capture this wonderful sky. I battled through with little food and less sleep, language barriers and I even broke down in the middle of nowhere at one point, but at least the sunset was nice that evening! I found the Atacama to be a very harsh landscape; the dry air makes your skin crack and split, the winds pummel you with every gust and the altitude slows you down and affects your ability to hike with heavy equipment. By the end of this trip me, my kit and my car had taken a real battering but it was all worth it, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Love that determination!