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AkaSci 🛰️

1 week ago • •

AkaSci 🛰️
1 week ago • •

The winner of the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 People's Choice Award -

"Dragon Tree Trails" by Benjamin Barakat, taken from Firmihin Forest, Hidaybu District, Socotra, Yemen.

Benjamin: "A solitary tree stands tall in the heart of Socotra’s forest of dragon’s blood trees – an otherworldly landscape unlike anywhere else on Earth. Facing north, I knew this spot was ideal for a star trail composition."

rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-p…
Overall winners at rmg.co.uk/whats-on/astronomy-p…
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Dragon Tree Trails by Benjamin Barakat

"A solitary tree stands tall in the heart of Socotra’s forest of dragon’s blood trees – an otherworldly landscape unlike anywhere else on Earth. Facing north, I knew this spot was ideal for a star trail composition," explains Benjamin.

"To capture the stars’ movements across the night sky, I took 300 individual exposures and stacked them to create the final image. One key technique to achieving clean, vibrant trails is underexposing slightly with a low ISO. Thanks to the ISO invariance of my Sony camera, I could recover shadow details in post-processing without compromising quality. This scene was truly magical – one of my favourite star trail images from around the world."

Taken from Firmihin Forest, Hidaybu District, Socotra, Yemen

ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 winners

The winning images in the world's biggest space photography competition have been revealed

^{www.rmg.co.uk}

in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

AkaSci 🛰️

in reply to AkaSci 🛰️ • 1 week ago • •

Winners of the annual competition for members of the German Society for Nature Photography (GDT).

smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/…
#Photography
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See 15 Stunning Images That Won the German Society for Nature Photography's Annual Contest

From a lunging frog to the majestic movements of penguins, the honored photographs capture the wonder of wildlife and beauty of natural landscapes

^{Carlyn Kranking (Smithsonian Magazine)}

#photography

in reply to AkaSci 🛰️

AkaSci 🛰️

in reply to AkaSci 🛰️ • 1 week ago • •

Check out astrophotographer Benjamin Barakat's website for his background, his portfolio, info on the tools of his trade and his online masterclass.

Benjamin Barakat is a Lebanese/English astrophotographer/researcher/teacher born in England in 1987.

He is based out of Switzerland where he is also a researcher at the highest observatory in Europe the Sphinx Observatory on top of Jungfraujoch at 3571m above sea level.

benjaminbarakat.com/
benjaminbarakat.com/about
all-about-photo.com/photograph…
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