A few nice photos from a recent star photoshoot at Sandys Beach on the Coffs Harbor Coast, NSW.
Conditions at 5 am were ideal for astrophotography: clear skies, the moon already set below the horizon, and no wind to disturb the long exposures. The beach was completely empty — just the sound of waves and the Milky Way arching overhead.
Some pre-dawn light along part of the sky added a nice touch. As sunrise approached, the stripe of light on the horizon brightened from deep red through orange to yellow, racing against the fading stars.
My favourite frames are the ones where the receding waves left a thin reflective film on the compacted sand — the stars sparkle back from below as much as above, collapsing the distance between earth and sky into a single mirror surface.