Send in the Clouds

Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, Waiau River, New Zealand
Sony α1
Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM
ISO 5000
f/1.8
20 seconds

Greetings from New Zealand.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that New Zealand is my favorite place to photograph the Milky Way. Because I only get down here once a year, I always choose June, when the Milky Way is up all night and New Zealand nights are longest.

The New Zealand workshop Don Smith and I each year follow pretty much the same itinerary, laid out in large part to match the spectacular scenery with the Milky Way. In the many years we’ve been doing this, I’ve accumulated many great Milky Way spots, and at least one at most of our overnight destinations. Lake Wakatipu: check. Wanaka: check. Aoraki / Mt. Cook: check. But Te Anau—where we spend three nights and visit both Doubtful and Milford Sounds—has always frustrated me.

The problem in Te Anau is two-fold. First, the town’s position on the shore of Lake Te Anau doesn’t offer any correctly oriented, easily accessible lake views in the hours immediately following sunset (we rely on a driver who must follow strict government safety rules that don’t permit him to drive all day, then go out again in the wee hours of the morning). And second, in winter, lake-hugging fog usually obscures the Te Anau night sky.

All that changed this year. After losing our Lake Wakatipu Milky Way shoot to clouds on the workshop’s first night, when we saw clear sky in the forecast for our first Te Anau night, Don and I reached out to friend and Te Anau-based photographer Douglas Thorne, who generously shared his favorite nearby Milky Way location. Turns out, it isn’t actually on the lake, it’s on the Waiau River that connects Lake Te Anau and nearby Lake Manapouri.

Normally Don and I try to get our eyes on a new location before guiding a group there, but we arrived in Te Anau too late that evening to do any scouting. Having lost one Milky Way shoot already, and with clouds forecast for the next two nights, we just decided go all-in on Douglas’s site. (But I have to admit, the control freak in me was a little anxious on the drive to this unseen spot.)

Foremost on my mind as we arrived was whether it would check all of our Milky Way boxes—boxes that are different for a workshop group than they are for a solo photographer or small group of more adventuresome shooters (because a group can only do what it’s most limited participant can to do). Not only do we require a photogenic foreground beneath a clear view of the Milky Way, we also need easy access (a short walk that’s easily navigable by all in moonless darkness). And finally, because we usually have several Milky Way first-timers, we want plenty of room for the entire group to photograph in close proximity, enabling Don and me to get everyone set-up, and to be easily available when someone needs help.

Hopping out of the van in the evening’s rapidly darkening twilight, the first thing I did was orient myself and scan the landscape in the direction the Milky Way would soon materialize. Seeing nothing but a lovely tree-lined river beneath wide open skies, I breathed small sigh of relief and mentally checked box one. Moving on to Milky Way boxes two and three (easy access and room for everyone), our driver Steve and I followed a wide dirt track up a little rise for no more than 200 feet, where we came upon a wide, open riverbank with more than enough room for our entire group: boxes two and three checked.

At first the Milky Way was only visible to our cameras, but soon the sky darkened enough (love those dark New Zealand skies!) to be seen by all. I started as I usually do when photographing the Milky Way: wide and vertical. Since the Milky Way is higher in New Zealand than most of the northern hemisphere locations where I photograph it, I used nothing but my 14mm f/1.8 prime lens, which gives me the best combination of wide field of view and light gathering capability.

With darkness complete, I pointed out the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds to the group, explaining to anyone listening that they are satellite galaxies gravitationally bound to the Milky Way and visible only in the Southern Hemisphere. Because the only time I can see and photograph the Magellanic Clouds is on my New Zealand trip, I always look for ways to include them. Unfortunately, the two Magellanic Clouds are separated from the Milky Way just enough to make it difficult to include all three in the same frame—it can be done in a wide horizontal, but the MCs and the Milky Way usually end up being too close to their respective sides of the frame to be compositionally palatable to me.

The other problem I’ve encountered when trying to include all three in one frame is that composing that wide at any of other my New Zealand Milky Way locations ended up requiring me to include less photogenic parts of the landscape. But this night I was pretty thrilled to see that a 14mm horizontal frame that included all three worked much better than any other location I’ve tried.

But instead of being satisfied with that, I got the (uncharacteristically) brilliant idea to try a vertical frame aiming straight upstream, directly at the two Magellanic Clouds (which were conveniently situated right above the river). Low and behold, not only was 14mm wide enough to capture both Magellanic Clouds and the river, it also enabled me to include a segment of the Milky Way above that was close enough to the galactic core to rival its brightness.

This turned out to be a successful night in many ways. In addition to my Magellanic Clouds / Milky Way triumph, everyone in the group got Milky Way images that made them happy (a point of emphasis—and stress—for Don and me until it happens), and we found a new Milky Way spot to share with future groups.

Join Don and me as we run it back in New Zealand again next year

Silent Night, Milky Way Above Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, Waiau River, New Zealand

New Zealand Night, Milky Way Over Tasman Lake

Sky Light,The Milky Way and City Lights, Lake Wanaka, New Zealand

Star Spangled Night, Milky Way and Tasman Lake, New Zealand

Milky Way and Small Magellanic Cloud, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Dark Night, Milky Way and Tasman Lake, New Zealand

Milky Way and the Southern Alps, Mt. Cook / Aoraki National Park, New Zealand

Milky Way Reflection, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Milky Way and Hooker River, Aoraki / Mt. Cook National Park, New Zealand

New Zealand Night, Milky Way Over Cecil Peak and Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand

Winter Night, Milky Way Above Tasman Lake, New Zealand

Milky Way, Nun’s Veil and Tasman River, Mt. Cook / Aoraki National Park, New Zealand

Milky Way and Jupiter, Tasman Lake, New Zealand

Moonlight and Milky Way, Lake Wakatipu, New Zealand