Ruapuke Motor Camp

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✨ No AI. No fake sky. Just Matariki rising over Mt Taranaki.

With it being Matariki week, I decided to revisit one of my favourite images from four years ago and give it a completely fresh edit. I think the new version feels much more natural while keeping all of the detail that was captured on the night.

This is the real Matariki (Pleiades) star cluster rising above Mt Taranaki. The apparent size often surprises people, but that's the result of photographing the mountain from a long distance away with a 400mm telephoto lens, not digital manipulation.

When I first shared this image in 2022, a few people insisted it had to be "Photoshopped" because they'd never seen Matariki look like this. In reality, long-exposure astrophotography simply reveals colours and faint detail that our eyes can't see.

Sometimes nature is more spectacular than we expect.

📍 Location: Ōpunake
📅 Taken: Fri 21 Oct 2022

🔍 Exif:
📷 Camera: Canon R (astro modded)
🔭 Lens: Sigma 150–600mm
🛰️ Tracker: Star Adventurer 2i
🌌 Sky: 1 × 4 min • f/6.3 • ISO 6400 • 400mm
⛰️ Foreground: 1 × 90 sec • f/6.3 • ISO 200 • 400mm

✨ Real sky • Real place • Real moment ✨

© Brendan Larsen Photography
Sharing via my page is encouraged — please don't download or reuse without permission.