Richard Peters uses our D3s for some ‘Out of this world’ photography

Before taking time out to help us judge the winners of our Who are you with Nikon?’ competition, professional photographer, Richard Peters, went on a photography expedition to Hawaii.

Most people who go to Hawaii take a surf board but not Richard – he armed himself with our Nikon D3s and D3 and a plan to shoot the Milky Way’s colossal beauty in its entirety. When shooting something on such a large scale, how exactly do you find a lens wide enough to take in galaxy that’s 1000 light years in diameter? And how do you photograph 400 billion stars without crowding the shot? With questions like this in mind, Richard headed for Maui, the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands…

The reason that most of us never see the Milky Way is because of modern day light pollution. With hardly any street lights on Maui, light pollution wasn’t a problem but shooting in the middle of the night meant being able to see five feet in front of you was! This is where Richard found the D3s, with its night vision ISO rating of 102,400 particularly handy. ‘It’s safe to say the Nikon D3s really can see in the dark’ blogged Richard.

There are only a few spots on earth that really allow you to see the Milky Way clearly and at the summit of the 10,000 foot Haleakala Volcano (one of the world’s largest dormant volcanoes) was one of them.
To get the shot he wanted he needed clear skies, but found much to his frustration that Mother Nature had other plans and as cloud drifted in and out, he found himself chasing our galaxy around the sky for most of the week.

The night sky, viewed from the 10,000 foot summit, is spectacular, but in the end Richard’s favourite shot was this one, taken at sea level.

“Including those foreground rocks with waves crashing off them really adds a nice extra element to the image that helps anchor the sky down,” he writes on his blog.

“Seeing this amazing sight really is incredible,” continues Richard “It’s just a shame that such a spectacular view isn’t possible for so many people around the world.”

That may be true, but thanks to some high-end Nikon equipment, and talented photography skills Richard has managed to bring it just a step closer for us all. You can check out the full blog post on Richard’s trip to Hawaii here.

So what do you think of Richard’s photographs? Do you have any tips to share or questions to ask him? If so, please post them below as next week he will be writing his ‘Top Tips’ on getting that perfect photograph and will do his best to answer any questions you may have.