This image was shot in Karijini National Park, Western Australia. It was taken on my last night of a 1 week stay in this incredible area. Milky way photography takes a fare bit of planning and patience – you can just turn up and hope for favourable conditions but some pre-planning really does increase your chances of success. When I teach, I really try to get across the importance of this as driving for many 100’s of km’s in the middle of night can leave you feeling very disheartened if you don’t get the shot! This shot came about from many hours of exploring the area looking for compositions that would line up with a rising Milky Way core in an ESE direction. I actually had more luck in finding good compositions in a westerly direction for a setting Milky Way core but the early start for the drive back home the next day, plus the increased chance of cloud cover at around 2am meant that this was not an option. So, when I saw this scene laid out in front of me, with Dales Gorge, running in the perfect direction to the ESE, I knew this would be my last image of the week. The only issue was it was 4pm and it was a full 3 hours until it would be dark enough for the core to appear. Thankfully, a very understanding misses and a 4x4 that we can cook out the back of, meant that we hung around for this one final dream shot.