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Babak Tafreshi | Photographer | Explorer | Speaker

National Geographic photojournalist, founder of The World at Night (TWAN), preserving natural night skies, bridging art & science

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Swipe to see the full-frame image of this magnificent night revealed in a single-exposure image of 10 seconds from the Hawaiian island of Maui in August 2015. I was running two cameras. One was doing a wider angle panorama that you see here and another one was making a closeup telephoto images that was posted today @natgeo (3rd slide). It was 2 am and I was alone on the mountain on the edge of the Haleakalā volcanic crater at about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Under the crystal-clear sky, out in the distance over the Pacific Ocean, a thunderstorm was flashing in a supercell cloud every minute.
A curved acacia tree in a morning twilight of Africa. Its almost like she is reaching down for gentle caress on them. On this Mother’s Day (in about 100 countries) I share my deepest love for my wonderful mom and my amazing wife. But lets celebrate this wider than our immediate family with sharing our gift with the mothers in need now. The 2021 #mothersday spending on gifts in the US is reaching a record of $28 billion. Just a bit of this donated to the following nonprofits can change many lives:
The night sky brings peace, balance, and happiness. It has the power to take us away from all the mess around us, at least for some moments. A natural medication for stress! When I read in your comments that some of my posts calm you and reduced your anxiety, it brings tears to my eyes.
Far from city lights, the unrivaled joy of stargazing and photography under the natural dark sky in the upper New England.
It was a crystal clear night of November 2012 in Yosemite, California. The night sky above towering giant Sequoia trees was surreal. These are some of the largest and tallest trees on Earth, reaching 70-80 meters tall (210-240 ft) and up to 2700 years old. Music by composer @barbadbayat
Some of the world’s major observatories are located next to the national parks which better secures protection of the dark sky above them. Through my career of night sky photography I’ve visited many of these sites and La Palma in the Canaries has been my favorite so far. The enchanting beauty of the island with a massive caldera and the stunning sky is unqiue. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory at 2400 meters high is on top of the island. Here the William Herschel Telescope is emitting a laser to the upper atmosphere for the adaptive optics system that removes blurring effect caused by the air turbulence. The system creates an artificial star in the atmosphere and monitors its rapid changes due to air turbulence and correct those hundreds of times per second using an ultra thin deformable mirror. For these large telescopes it is crucial to reveal remarkable details of the universe. But the system which was first created in astronomy, is now applied in medical laser surgeries, microscopic imaging, and laser communication. This is the beauty of science. You never know an idea which was started out of curiosity (and not necessarily for our immediate needs) may results in changing our daily life.
Photo courtesy of Bettymaya Foott
The few years that I lived in Germany gave me an opportunity to explore some of the outstanding castles of the country, at night. The town of Schwerin near Hamburg was calm and quiet on this spring night of 2013. It is hone to magnificent palace, serving as the local state parliament. The palace is an icon of romantic Historicism architecture in Europe.
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