The Smuggler's Cave

Image Description:

What is the creepiest place you ever shot at? For me, it definitely is this cave village which I visited during this year's summer astrophotography trip to the Canary Islands with my buddy Benjamin Barakat

The place was pretty well populated while we scouted it in the afternoon, but it was completely deserted when we arrived in the middle of the night to capture it with the early morning Milky Way.

As we exited out of our car, we were engulfed by pitch black night. Spooky shadows were flying around us, giving off eerie cries. Some sounded like crying babies, while others resembled the coughing of chain smoker with a terrible hangover.

After overcoming our initial shock, we pointed our flashlights into the sky and saw that the shadows were big birds. They did not seem to like our lights though and flew so close to our heads that we felt the flapping of their wings. We quickly dimmed our lights and headed down the trail to the cave. After some research the other day, I found that the birds are relatives of the Albatross, called Cory's Shearwater.

Fortunately, the birds did not follow us into the cave. We set up our cameras and took some test shots. I was completely stunned by how dark the place was. In a three minute exposure at ISO 12'800, only the sky outside the cave confirmed that I had not forgotten to remove my lens cap.

Time to dodge the eerie birds once more. I hiked back to our car to get my low level lights, while my buddy Benjamin found an excuse to wait in the safety of the cave.

Lighting up the place proved to be a tricky task, but after some tinkering with my lights, I found an satisfactory solution and we were finally able to do something productive.

EXIF

Canon EOS Ra

Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

Low Level Lighting

Sky:

Stack of 5 x 60s @ ISO1600

Foreground:

Panorama of 4 panels, each a stack of 5 x 120s @ ISO6400

Copyright: Ralf Rohner