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Nestled in a small bay on the southern side of Lyttleton Harbour, Purau, one of the oldest Maori settlement sites around the Harbour, is a tiny cluster of three dozen homes tucked out of sight of Christchurch’s port, Lyttleton.
Its small jetty is a favourite photographic subject as the locals store numerous colourful dinghies on its deck. While I already had several successful images of the jetty captured during the day, I had always wondered how the jetty would look at night; particularly on a calm, clear night when reflections might be at their best.
With the help of the PhotoPils photo planning app, I identified some times when the Milky Way would align with the harbour mouth. Although this turned out to require a trip near midnight, it had the advantage of being a time when no one else would be around—particularly boats disturbing the reflections.
There are no streetlights at the jetty, and to the naked eye, the scene seems very dark. I was surprised to see how much the distant lights of Lyttleton Port bathed the hillsides from around the corner.
My widest lens is the manual Samyang 14mm f2.4. It would give me the full height from the water to above the Milky Way centre. Although I am confident shooting at higher ISOs, noise is apparent above 2400, so I kept the ISO moderate and lengthened the exposure. Nothing was moving.
Exposing for the stars created a bright image that I wondered about toning down. In the end, the light seemed to give life to the image, balancing the jetty and its boats with the dramatic Milky Way centre high above. I tried not to overprocess the night sky, but I did increase the contrast in the sky to heighten the drama. I now use Topaz for noise reduction, as its algorithm, at moderate settings, gives a clean image without smudging details.
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