Aaron Harrison, Trees in rocks (LANDSCAPE 2022)

On two seperate occasions in 2021 I visited Mannum Falls after dark, a unique location about an hour from Adelaide and part of the International Dark Sky Reserve in South Australia. The first occasion in July was prime Milky Way Core season and I took along my eleven year old son to share the experience with me. However, once arriving, and after darkness had set, a lightening storm surrounded us, and gave us only a brief half an hour to capture the image. I believe the image really captures the uniqueness of the location, with gum trees growing seemingly out of huge limestone boulders, surrounded by rock pools and a reedy creek and the Milky Way Correct the star of the show, farming the tree. My second visit was later in the year, when the Milky Way Core was no longer visible. I was keen to once again capture a similar scene , but with a different perspective. As the Milky Way Core was no longer present in the Southern sky, I took a series of longer exposures and blended them together, creating a star trail effect with a pool of water in the foreground. The third image is once again shot from the same location, this time with the foreground of rocks and tree illuminated by a full moon, and the Orion constellation "photobombing" the scene in the night sky! Besides the mosquitos and other flying insects present, the visits were certainly well worth the effort and provided a very "mindful" experience!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.