Star Trails Above the SS Speke
The SS Speke shipwreck at Kitty Miller Bay on Phillip Island is one of those places that feels frozen in time, especially under the night sky. A friend invited me on an astrophotography trip, and although the forecast warned of clouds, we packed our gear and set off with the wreck as our main subject. The walk to reach it isn’t short, about 30 minutes along rocky ground and steep slopes, but it was worth every step. I had originally planned to capture the Milky Way, but the rolling clouds changed my mind. Instead, I turned to the southern sky and went for star trails, capturing hundreds of frames with my Nikon D800 and 17–55mm f/2.8 lens. Later, I blended them together in StarStax to fill in the gaps where the clouds passed through. The result isn’t what I first imagined, but it’s a reminder that sometimes the unexpected conditions create the most memorable images.
