honorable mention
Paul Schmit united statesPhoto © Paul Schmit
title
Don Quixote vs. The Universe
Concerning the technical aspects of the photograph, I left my home at 2:00am to arrive at a remote windmill outside San Ysidro, New Mexico, around 3:30am. With the distant city lights of Albuquerque faint on the horizon, I hiked up to a nearly 30-foot tall windmill and set up my tripod to align it with the Milky Way’s galactic core. With the intervalometer set, I ran into the frame with my flashlight and posed as the austere metallic windmill violently twisted with the high-desert breeze. Plenty of blowing dust created a brilliant pillar of light emanating from my flashlight deep into the night sky. The photo consists of 9 identical 15-second exposures (each at 20mm, f/2.8, ISO 4000) digitally stacked to improve overall image quality.
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entry description
This image embodies humankind’s struggle to control and often resist the inevitable churn and flow of the natural universe. The noble and well-intentioned protagonist, standing tall on behalf of his imperfect and often misguided species, nevertheless is thwarted as the bright galactic plane continues its journey across the sky, seemingly in concert with the prevailing earthly winds bending and pushing the proverbial windmill, indifferent to his desires. Ultimately, he must embrace the natural order and learn to flow along with it to live in harmony with the environment that created him and continues to nourish him.Concerning the technical aspects of the photograph, I left my home at 2:00am to arrive at a remote windmill outside San Ysidro, New Mexico, around 3:30am. With the distant city lights of Albuquerque faint on the horizon, I hiked up to a nearly 30-foot tall windmill and set up my tripod to align it with the Milky Way’s galactic core. With the intervalometer set, I ran into the frame with my flashlight and posed as the austere metallic windmill violently twisted with the high-desert breeze. Plenty of blowing dust created a brilliant pillar of light emanating from my flashlight deep into the night sky. The photo consists of 9 identical 15-second exposures (each at 20mm, f/2.8, ISO 4000) digitally stacked to improve overall image quality.
about the photographer
I am plasma physicist by day, working in the field of nuclear fusion research and applying scientific intuition and creative problem solving to designing experiments capable of achieving conditions that can only be found elsewhere deep within stars like our sun. My obsession with photography, and night and astrophotography in particular, is due in part to its merging of objective complexity (studying and planning for the precise orientation of the night sky, researching compelling locations, perfecting exposure in the difficult, dim shooting conditions, waking up at odd times and journeying to places where no one else can be found) with subjective creativity (composition, visual metaphors, integrating natural and human elements in juxtaposition, accentuating emotional cues). I am still relatively new in this field, having begun my foray into general photography in 2013 and night/astrophotography in 2017. I have a long list of concepts I hope to fulfill in the coming years, and I look forward to sharing my work with others, integrating with an awe-inspiring community, and creating connections through my images.back to gallery