Image Title: Mayondromeda
Mt. Mayon and Andromeda Galaxy in one frame
Location: Albay Bicol, Philippines
This image is very complicated in terms of planning, scouting the exact location, and post-processing. Although it is easy nowadays to just use sky replacement in Photoshop and composite any sky you want, I still believe in the value and process of "photography," whatever that means. All the raw files used in processing this image have the volcano and the galaxy in one frame.
I used Google Maps, SkySafari, PhotoPills, and PlanIt Pro to plan this shot. After the planning, I had an idea where the "location" would be to align the two subjects. But everything was only theoretical at that point. It became even more complicated during the execution. We spent two nights finding the perfect location with a clear view of the night sky and the volcano. It was very difficult due to the trees, wires, and dogs around the area!
It became even more complicated because the only location we could find had a lot of street lights that were ruining our shot! To make matters worse, the volcano rarely shows itself, similar to the more popular Mount Fuji.
To deal with the pesky street lights, we made a makeshift "lens hood extender" using some paper bags and cardboard that were luckily in the car with us because of the food we ate before the shoot.
Anyways, that's the story behind the shot. The post-processing was the typical astrolandscape process where you stack and blend the sky and the foreground.
You may find the the video where I showed the raw files on this link:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DVgVCmrvp/