You want to learn how to compose this ?

(c) www.photopills.com

Over the last months I was learning about how to perfectly plan the alignment  of sun, moon or milky way to the desired capture object. For me the best resource to learn about and apply it is Photopills. Their iOs and Android app is stunning and their guides and videos are extremely helpful to master a new skill.

The Enlightenment Stupa in Benalmádena apparently is the largest Buddhist stupa in Europe. It is beautifully located at the Costa del Sol in Andalusia. If you are driving on the highway from Málaga to Marbella you can not miss the golden tip which draws your attention.

Now, religious buddhist location perfectly aligned to sun, moon or even the milky way…my imagination and excitement went nuts!

Here are my steps to the capture:

1. Research the culprit on GOOGLE maps and Wikipedia and Instagram and 500px. You will get a first idea of capture locations, angles, light, already realised creations.

2. Discover sunrise, sunset, moonrise and moonset at the location, to obtain a first idea what you are going for.

3. Analyse the closer environment to synthezise possible capture locations. Photopills as well is a good tool for this. I also consult topographical Garmin maps to get a feeling for the terrain around the suspect.

4. As rising and setting of the sun and the moon varies quite a bit over the year, I figure out at which date and time of the day they are exactly where I want them. Have a look at his video, where the process is perfectly explained.

5. Visit the location to see if your plans were good :-). The Photopills app again is a marvellous tool. Its augmented reality tool will now show you exactly where sun and moon will be at wich time of the year, month, day or minute!! Simply incredible. 

6…. to be continued!

As this is a current project of mine, the picture is not finished yet. I hope you surf by again soon, I will update my journey here as I discover new interesting experiences for you.

Let’s go Watson !