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East Java

Ijen Sulfur Worker
Blue fire
by Daniel Cheong

A very tough life for those sulfur carriers, having to carry on their back up to 60Kg of sulfur from the bottom of the Ijen volcano several times a day.

Mount Bromo
Mount Bromo
by Daniel Cheong

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Shot during my trip to East Java Indonesia last July. This area is a famous photography spot to shoot the sunrise on Mount Bromo, sunrise was at 5.45am but we had to be there at 2am to secure a good spot, and the temperature was below 10C. During the whole trip, I used the Nikon Z7 with the Nikkor Z 14-30mm, this is an awesome combination, the 14-30mm f/4 is as sharp as my 14-24mm f/2.8, and it has a standard 82mm and I was able to use my NiSi v6 100mm filter system.

Kawah Ijen
Kawah Ijen
by Daniel Cheong

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Sunrise light on Kawah Ijen (Ijen Crater) and its beautiful turquoise colored lake (the largest highly acidic lake in the world). You can also see the sulfuric fumes from the sulfur mines. This was another very long day, traveling from Bromo to Ijen, hiking to the top of the crater, going to the bottom of the crater twice, first during the night to shoot the blue flames, then going up to shoot the sunrise, and going down again to shoot the sulfur mines and workers. More than 35 hours without sleep, but it was worth it! ? Nikon Z7 | Nikkor Z 14-30mm F/4 Single exposure. One can appreciate the great dynamic range of the Z7!

Galactic Bromo
Mount Bromo
by Daniel Cheong

Vertical Milky Way over Mount Bromo in East Java, Indonesia.

This is the first time I am using the so-called stacking technique to process the Milky Way. This technique is used to reduce the noise, specially when shooting at very high ISO.

I was using the Nikon Z7 & Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4, so the widest aperture I could use was f/4.

Shooting at 14mm and in order to get a sharp milky way, I applied the NPF Rule, which recommends to use 15s exposure (instead of the 500 rule which would allow 500/14=35s). Therefore I had to increase the ISO to 16,000.

So I took 9 consecutive exposures (ISO 16,000 f/4 15s), plus one so-called 'Dark Frame' and used the Sequator software to stack all the exposures.

For the foreground, I used a separate exposure at ISO 4000 f/4 144s.

Gone Fishing
Banyuwangi Beach
by Daniel Cheong

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Sunrise on Banyuwangi Beach (East Java, Indonesia).I just had an awesome trip in Bromo and Ijen volcanoes, will soon post the shots. This one was taken during my last day in East Java.

Galactic Bromo 3
Mount Bromo
by Daniel Cheong

Full Milky Way arch over Bromo caldera, shot from King Kong Hill. The relatively small observation deck was packed with photographers almost fighting to get a good spot.

Bromo Rush Hour
Mount Bromo
by Daniel Cheong

Beautiful starry night over Mount Bromo caldera. Lots of cars traffic too. This was shot at around 3am. The sunrise is at 6am, if you are not there 4 hours before, you don't have to chance to secure a good spot to put your tripod!

Gone Fishing
Banyuwangi Beach
by Daniel Cheong

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Sunrise on Banyuwangi Beach, East Java, Indonesia.

Ijen Crater at 2,386m above the sea.
Blue fire

So much smoke in that day. We went down there when its so dark until the sun came up.

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Thanks to all Phoide contributors to East Java!
Most notably Daniel Cheong, Jorge Císcar and Romain Pontida.