The Ocean Glows Blue Under The Milky Way

Photographer Jeffrey Berkes took a breathtaking image of the ocean glowing blue under the starlight of the Milky Way. The shot wasn’t an easy one to obtain, and required some tricky maneuvering and timing on Berkes’ part:

I set up my gear in the waves around 1am just to fill the frame with the glowing water. I noticed my tripod kept sinking into the sand during my long exposures, so I came up with an idea to push the tripod deep into the sand and hold it sturdy while high tide came marching in.

The resulting photo is well worth the difficulty, with Berkes saying he was “in awe” of the beautiful display. Berekes had previously been unsuccessful in photographing any bioluminescence in the coastal waters. He was successful this time around, and was able to capture a brilliant image of the Milky Way above the illuminated waters. The Milky Way is our home galaxy, containing our solar system. It also contains approximately 400 billion stars and is between 100,000 to 120,000 light years in diameter. When seen from Earth it looks like a glittering band of light, making it an ideal subject for images of the night sky.

Berkes took the photo from the Haystack Rock Bird Sanctuary in Cannon Beach, Oregon in July of this year. Check out his website for other amazing images of the night sky, as well as other galleries filled with many other beautiful photos.

Interested in capturing some of these images for yourself? Berkes offers night sky photography workshops across the United States and has posted his 2015-2016 schedule on his website. There are also prints of certain images available through his online store.