Last Updated on 12/11/2017 by Chris Gampat
All images by Prasat Vedvikhyat. Used with Creative Commons permission.
The night sky is never short of fascinating sights to capture, making it a favorite subject of photographers around the world. Mumbai-based Prasat Vedvikhyat joins our roster of creatives who have been charmed by the stars and their timeless beauty. In his set, titled To Infinity…And Beyond, we see the familiar display of the distant Milky Way galaxy and the hypnotic celestial dance, set against some landmarks of Maharashtra.
“Astrophotography is quite an otherworldly and surreal experience,” Prasat has found, and it must be even more magical to be the one behind the lens and end up with a set of stunning photos. Behind the spectacular displays captured, however, is a set of fortuitous conditions made possible by meticulous planning. “Away from the city lights, under the star-studded skies,” comes the first clue in his set’s description.
We can then imagine Prasat making his way to strategic locations away from the busy Mumbai as part of his “quest to capture the stars as they vault across the skies.” There, he spends several hours in total darkness, pointing his camera at the cloudless and moonless sky. In the dead of the night, the slow dance of the stars and the stunning Milky Way galaxy rising in the east unfolds, and our astrophotographer begins to work.
Like many of the exemplary photos of the night sky that we’ve seen, Prasat includes some man-made structures in the foreground, almost as a reminder of mankind’s obsession with the heavens since time immemorial. There’s a satellite dish to represent the modern times, and some ruins from bygone eras.
“Hundreds of photographs were stacked to create the light trails,” he said, but it could simply mean that he took a long exposure of the stars and added the structures later as the foreground. The dreamy colors in some of the shots also suggest that he shot until shortly before sunrise, creating a surreal image of the night making way for daytime.
Head to Prasat Vedvikhyat’s Behance portfolio and Instagram to see the rest of his photography.