REACHING THE STARS

Mastering an awe-inspiring genre like astrophotography is a tough task, one that's becoming tougher over the years. Navaneeth Unnikrishnan has toiled through it all and is one of the pioneers of the genre today.

- ANIRUDH IYER

His pictures don't only consist of pure astrophotography, they belong to a wide range of genres including landscapes, night landscapes, mobile photography, timelapse and more. Asian Photography spoke to him about gear, passion, time investment, workflows, and more. Excerpts:

How did you get into astrophotography?

I stumbled into astrophotography by chance when I unintentionally captured an image of the Milky Way without realising what it was. My hometown has very minimal light pollution, and one night, while observing the sky from my terrace, I noticed an unusual faint glow. At the time, I had a basic understanding of photography but no understanding of night skies, so I decided to point my camera toward the sky and take a long exposure shot. To my surprise, the image revealed intricate details that were invisible to the naked eye. That moment sparked my fascination with astrophotography, leading me to explore wide-field and deep-sky imaging.

How should one start in astrophotography if they plan to get into it?