Milky Way over a Turquoise World

Photographer

Petr Horalek

Category

Nature Photography - Nightscape

Company

Submission Group

Amateur

Year

2024

Country / Region:

Maldives

I visited the northern beach of the small island of Soneva Jani and couldn’t believe my eyes. The whole beach shined with such engaging turquoise light while the gems of the Southern Cross constellation appeared in the sky, such as Gum Nebula or Carina Nebula. Locals say the bioluminescence of plankton peaks in early January, but this year the activity prolonged a month more. Not every night before or after it was that strong, but this night was just simply EPIC. You could easily walk on the beach with the plankton stuck on your feet so much that your legs worked like small torches. You could swim in the lagoon and see each of your movements illuminated by the plankton in the water. You just felt like in a turquoise wonderland. The image is a single shot, basically processed (curves, white balance, selective colors - for h-alpha enhancement, denoising).

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