Ben Maze has won the Focus NIGHT SKY CHALLENGE with a fabulous panorama of the Milky Way. He receives a NiSi Natural Night Filter valued at $249 courtesy of NiSi Filters Australia.
Ben also secured second place while third place was awarded to Fernando Silva.
The free Focus May competition, the NIGHT SKY CHALLENGE, attracted 64 high quality entries. Two expert judges, Luke Tscharke and Jay Evans from AstroWorkshops, have been travelling the world and running back-to-back workshops in Uluru since the competition closed. But they found time to study and score each image independently.
Every competition entrant can access their scores by re-entering the competition website.
Click here for a gallery of the top 20 images!
Luke Tscharke said:
Everything must have come together for the photographer to be able to capture this scene. The summit of Cradle Mountain is notoriously cloudy, and in this capture not only was the summit clear, but there was no cloud in the sky at all. The timing of the year meant that the Milky Way was rising from the east (left of frame) and the skies were dark due to little moonlight. These are already fantastic conditions for night photography. However, the presence of Aurora Australis reflected in Dove Lake makes for a glorious spectacle. The photographer has captured the scene brilliantly via a panorama, allowing the Milky Way to frame the shot. Congratulations on capturing a shot that most night photographers could only dream of.
Jay Evans said:
Those that entered showed us a broad variety of nightscape photography locations, and some great capture techniques. We always look for those shots that display a vision and work to capture something unique or capture some phenomena in balance with the night sky and its foreground, and there were many different styles entered. Entries that scored highly had excellent tonal balance throughout the image, and were generally subtle in their processing. Probably the most notable area for improvement is white balance. There were a lot of images that had warm or magenta tones, which do not suit night images very well. Overall it was fantastic to see so many folks out there and shooting the night sky. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you would like further explanation of your scores in the competition.
John Armytage, Executive Chairman of Focus Group, said:
Congratulations Ben Maze. Thanks also to our two judges from AstroWorkshops, who donated their time, and to our Sponsor, NiSi Filters Australia, for their continued support of Focus Group and its Members.