Star Trails Above Large Lake Pelister
High in the Baba Mountain range, at 2,200 meters above sea level, lies the Large Lake in Pelister National Park, a hidden gem near my hometown of Bitola, North Macedonia. The hike to get there takes about four hours, with steep and rocky paths that test your endurance, but the reward is breathtaking. My friends and I spent the night by the lake in the mountain dormitory, warmed by herbal tea and the crisp mountain air, waiting for the stars to reveal themselves. Despite it being August, the chill felt like winter. Using my Nikon D800 with a Nikon 17–35mm f/2.8 lens, I captured hundreds of exposures, later stacked in StarStax and refined in Lightroom, to create this image of the stars circling above. With the help of the PhotoPills app to plan the northern alignment, I managed to frame the swirling night sky with the faint glow of nearby town of Prilep in the background, a reminder of civilization far below.
