Starry night sky and palms

Each night I'd spend some time wandering along the beach as it was so peaceful without anyone around. Just the sound of waves gently lapping against the beach. The only company I had was from some little crabs scurrying around and, apart from the one seen on the rock in the second photo, trying to keep out of my way.

It was a great opportunity for a photo technique called 'light painting' - literally painting in light with either a torch or a speedlite onto dark areas. Each photo was taken over a 30 second or 1 minute exposure while I used a speedlite to light up the beach or rocks etc.

The photo of the crab on the rock was a little more tricky as it involved me changing the cameras' focus from the crab to infinity mid-exposure so as to bring the rest of scene into focus. I don't think I got it quite right but I didn't want to disturb the crab too much so left with this photo.

It took me a while to balance the light painting in the third photo as what looks like the sun in the top right of the image is actually the moon and was particularly bright that night. I wanted to try and show the 'Tsingy' rock formations. Tsingy is the name given to Jurassic limestone that covers a large part of northwest Madagascar. Literally the Malagasy word 'Tsingy' means where one cannot walk barefoot or on tiptoes.