Evolution of the Image - Heavens Above, Lake Tekapo

I thought it would be a good idea to share the history of one of my favourite images. It also shows the evolution of this shot, as well as my journey into night sky photography. It has been an adventure which starting in 2009 in New Zealand on a trip with a friend and it's one I blame for numerous adventures out in the night sky ever since. I still get a similar feeling when I see an image first show up on the back of the LCD, the amazement at what the camera was able to capture when my eyes could only make out the brightest parts.


Throughout the journey I have upgraded gear as the technology improved, specifically the cameras ability to capture high ISO images with decreased noise. I have also been lucky enough to upgrade a lot of my lenses over time, which helps a lot more in night photography than in any other kind. 


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Lake Tekapo is a wonderful place and one I always make sure I visit when I go to New Zealand. It's like all tourist towns that have grown overtime, inadvertently they can lose some small town charm that drew people to it in the first place. It's funny when you visit the lake or the Church of the Good Shepard and you see the conveyor belt of tourist buses rolling through the town, most stop for a short period of time and move on to other areas of the South Island. I feel they miss one of the primary assets of the town; the heritage status the sky here has.

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First visit in 2009

The was one of my first trips to NZ and one of my first night shots taken with a 2nd hand Canon 400D with a 28-105 mm lens and shot on a monopod. Yes a monopod! I managed to break the small tripod I brought with me and had share a friends monopod instead. I had to wedge it between a number of rocks. I sat behind it, freezing in the cold in case it fell, it didn't. I was surprised at how well it worked, I even managed to get up to a 10 minute exposure with that setup.
​This image is straight out of the camera.
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The return in 2011

This shot was from my 2011 trip to Lake Tekapo, I had a new camera (Canon 60D) and new lens (Canon 24mm f1.4). Additionally I had improved my understanding of techniques like live view focusing and additional post processing.
This trip was a similar time of year to my first visit so the milky way is in a similar location.
This was the first time I noticed the "tourist event" the night sky and this church was. It was one of the few times I have managed to get my wife out shooting with me. While we were quietly taking photos and working out framing, 2 different groups of people turned up and take shots (right through the middle of ours.) The first group didn't even realise we where there. 

The 2013 Visit

This trip was planned purely as a photo trip, the time was picked to get the maximum time photographing the milky way.

I was nervous as the roads had been closed from Christchurch to Tekapo the previous day, the weather was cloudy for the first night. Day 2 included a "quick" round trip to Christchurch, snow was predicted that afternoon and I was worried the road might be closed again and worse still, I'd left all my camera gear in Lake Tekapo. I did, however, get to drive through snow for the first time on the way back into town. It was something this Aussie had never experienced before! It's surprising how quiet it is during a snow storm, I'm used to the noisy rain storms with the "big old fat rain" as Forrest Gump would say.

The sky was predicted to be clear that night but as it snowed for most of the day I wasn't convinced. I should have trusted the NZ weather bureau as the skies were crystal clear so I loaded up on caffeine and headed out. 

This was from my first visit of the night (3 were planned for the milky way in different positions). It was taken with an upgraded camera body (Canon 6D) as well as another new lens (Bower(Samyang) 14mm f2.8 )

The beginning

This is a single frame from the final panorama I had envisioned I wanted on this trip. It was my 3rd visit to the church so I had become pretty good at walking on the icy rocks. I had gone around to the eastern side of the lake and taken some other shots while waiting for the milky way to be in the correct position. This is the closest to the framing of the church from the visits in the previous years.

I used the Canon 6D and 24mm f1.4 lens.

The journey

This is the picture I had in my head when I was planning this trip. I was amazed that I could capture a full 180 degree view of the sky. I had only attempted this a couple of other times with mixed results with errors in stitching, missing frames or alignments.

This is an 11 image stitch of the milky way (north/south). I was lucky that it actually snowed during the day and cleared up that night. It added some lovely snow to the foreground, added a light dusting on the mountains and I was able to include Lake Tekapo itself.

However this wasn't the finished product.

​I used the Canon 6D and 24mm f1.4 lens.

The Finished Product

Here is the final edit of the image taken from the image above. I removed the lake foreground as I felt it closed in the image.

To me this depicts the wonder I feel by looking up at the night sky it feels like it never ends.

Its difficult to show the size and detail in this image in a small web version I have this one printed up in my home it has pride of place and is 120cm by 40cm

Heaven's Above Lake Tekapo