This picture was taken in South Tirol, in the Italian Dolomites; this place is called Alpe di Siusi or Seiser Alm. In July 2016 I went there to take some shots of the Milky Way. There was a rain storm in the early afternoon and after a beautiful foggy sunset, I waited for a darker sky and I did take many panoramic shots of the milky way arch. At about 11:30 pm the moon arose on the left of Langkofel peak and illuminated all the valley full of fog. I merged the landscape with the milky way and the moonlight to have an image that symbolized completely what I have seen. The darkness of the night can give us magic moments.
The moment of the shooting was very exiting. I expected to do a typical night picture and I had achieved one that nobody has of Alpe di Siusi. For me, it wasn’t hard to compose; I visited that place many times before that shooting, and I always had in my mind the majestic Langkofel and Plattkofel (the big mountain range that is the main protagonist of the scene) leading to the valley and the hills of the plain. The moon illuminated the fog and made more prominent every element, guiding the eye of the observer right to the true magic of the night, to something not visible without the moonlight.
It was necessary to take a separate image exposing for the moon, as the light was very strong.
As I said before, I had to blend the pano of the Milky Way over the mountains and the one with the Moonlight. My purpose was to represent my emotions while observing the scene and to put also an unexpected mood in the image.
Indeed, is not possible to obtain a unique shot with the Moon and the Milky Way together, because the Moonlight is too strong. That’s why our galaxy, in “The magic of the night” is not so evident. For me, post processing means not only a personal vision of a landscape, but also a way of incorporating the feelings experienced in front of a landscape, of the majestic nature. I think, the creation of an image is similar to the makeup - it shouldn’t be noticed. So I think that a good photographer, a good observer, is also a good editor. In my pictures, I like to preserve the landscapes as they were when I was looking at them, but emphasizing their best characteristic to make people understand the identity of that places.
