Interesting Photo of the Day: Dreaming of Space

Interesting Photos

Creative photographers can take the meaning of a self-portrait to a whole new level. For them, it’s not just about taking a photo. Creative photos are a class all their own. Take for instance the following self-portrait by photographer Gustavo Perez. He’s surely set a gold standard for self-portraits with this image:

“Out of the World Self-Portrait” by Gustavo Perez (Via Reddit. Click image to see full size.)

The image is a composite of 10 photos that Perez snapped with his Nikon D800 camera and the Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 lens. For the sky, he took nine separate shots at 20mm, f/2.8 and ISO 6400. He then waited for the early morning blue hour and captured the foreground image with himself in the frame at 20mm, f/2.8, a one-second exposure and ISO 2000. For perfect alignment, he placed the tripod at the same spot all night. He then used Sequator to align the stars and get the details in the sky, and combined the resulting image with the foreground using Photoshop.

Perez had undoubtedly done an excellent job of composing and choosing the right colors for this image. The foreground landscape itself works perfectly as a leading line and draws us right into the image and towards the magnificent Milky Way in the background. But the color of Perez’s shirt acts like a punctuation for us, letting us take a break before diving further in.

Even his choice of helmet and the pose gives us something to think about. Is he a space wanderer stuck in this planet? Is he missing his home planet? What do you think?