David Wilson


This is a picture take on a tour in Armenia to the Garni Temple at night.  The Garni temple was built in the first or second century and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1679.  It was reconstructed in 1969-1975 by the Russians.  Garni is the only remaining pagan temple in Armenia.  On the tour we had 15 minutes to explore.  In those 15 minutes, I pulled up starwalk 2, figured out where the milky way was and found it to be standing nearly vertical.  I did a little happy dance and headed to the edge of the gorge behind the temple and all those bright lights.  Popped out the portable tripod, mounted my Sony A7 III with my normal carry 24-70mm Zeiss lens.  I quickly calculated some reasonable times, put on manual focus, attached my phone for remote control and took a series of about 15 pictures over 10 minutes.  The first shots had some light cloud cover and I was worried I wouldn’t get a shot.  By the time I got the exposures right, the clouds had moved on and I took 3 pictures vertical pano of the MW.  I then had just enough time to go back and take some shots of the temple with various lighting and colors (Blue, Green, Yellow, White rotation).  I made it back to the bus in time for the return trip.  Some minor photoshop work later I composted one to the other for a pretty stunning picture.  While this may not be the overall best picture I could have achieved, I am proud to have accomplished this using the tools and knowledge I learned in your workshop.