The Milkyway, our own galaxy, rising in the east in this image, seen from Breaker Bay, Wellington. Unlike the majority of Milkyway images, this one shows it as a straight band, crossing the frame diagonally and showing the galaxy center in the middle.
This straight perspective is actually the correct one. Our own Solar System is located on the outskirts of our galaxy, which is shaped like a spiral, rather flat. When we look at the it from our perspective, towards its center, then it's pretty much like looking at a plate from one side - hence it looks like a straight band. 
The gorgeous arc-shaped Milkyway images you see a lot, are indeed spectacular, but the arc shape is due to the way a camera sees it. The arc is a result of distortion. I did create some of these too, and will post them on here soon.
This is also a panorama. A vertical panorama of 5 individual images, to be exact.
Conditions in this night were not perfect, there were some clouds moving around. Interesting is their movement though. I can see 4 different directions, which means, those clouds were on different atmospheric altitudes, each with its own wind direction and speed.
This can, of course, be printed, but will need o be custom sized due to its panorama format.
​If you are interested in my artwork, please let me know via email:
photos@wernerkaffl.com

As promised in my last post, here the full panorama. My last image showed just the center of this, highlighting the sun flares. Unfortunately these flares are partly lost in the panorama, due to the stitching process.
Both are pretty epic though, at least in my view :-)
This is a panorama of 11 individual images, shot in one horizontal row.
​If you are interested in my artwork, please let me know via email:
photos@wernerkaffl.com

This image was a lucky shot. It's actually been a part of a panorama series, but I found it worth to single it out as an individual shot. Due to how a panorama is usually shot, a series of images taken in fast succession, using different angles and then stitch those together, the whole dramatic sun flare is lost in the panorama version. Don't get me wrong, the pano is impressive too, but this one is rather unique.
I might post the full pano in my next post.
If you are interested in my artwork, please let me know via email:
photos@wernerkaffl.com

Here some recent sales from one of my outlets.
The first one goes to Berlin, Germany, the second one to Port Coquitlam, BC - Canada.
These were sold in an international outlet, please be aware that the prices on there are USD and shipping to NZ can be quite expensive. I have different, less expensive options for national sales, supporting NZ businesses rather than off-shore.
If you are interested in some of my artwork, please let me know via email:
photos@wernerkaffl.com

... Not really, but it looks like.
This is a 8 image panorama, taken about a year ago. I was just on my way home from work, seeing a southerly front closing in. In the road it was by far brighter, but till I got home and grabbed my camera, it was pitch dark on Mount Victoria. The purplish spot just right of the center shows how bright the sky would still have been if not for the cloud cover.
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com

Another Wellington icon, the Byrd Memorial on Mount Victoria, close to the lookout.
One of those images was taken in early morning, the other one in early evening.
Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com

... on a good day. Nothing beats that!
Carter Fountain, one of Wellingtons icons on Oriental Bay. Shooting towards the light isn't easy. This one is slightly under-exposed, otherwise the curtain like wisps of water would be only one big white blob.
Btw, because I've been asked, no, there was barely any wind, just a slight breeze. Hence those wisps are pretty much vertical.
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com

... another waterfall...
This one is a rather huge composite.
The cavern is made up from 15 snippets of rocks, taken from 6 photographs I took around the Red Rocks reserve in Wellington.
The rocks in the front were taken from Tarakena Bay and Moa Point, the shrub from Miramar, and the image of Natalie was taken at Point Dorset. Some additional texture came from snow covered hills around Wellington.
Waterfall, lighting and smoke, splashes etc are digital, as is the curving of the cave itself.
It's quite exciting to use some existing images to create something entirely different - all the single images this one is made of, were posted as individual photos here before btw.
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com
However, prints will have to wait till things are back to normal.

Another one of my recent macro photographs.
No trick with this one, just some interesting lighting ideas and a little smoke...
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com
However, prints will have to wait till things are back to normal.

Here some more of my recent experiments. Both images were sunsets, the first one on Paekakariki beach, the second on the Wellington South Coast.
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com
However, prints will have to wait till things are back to normal.

Earth Day, Starwars Day, all that sort of stuff came up lately. I thought I'll join in, and create some SciFi stuff myself - Not earth though, but its satellite, the moon.
This is a composite, using one of my earliest Milky Way images and one full Moon shot from around 2018.
Putting the moon in this position was a bit tricky, you wouldn't be able to see this constellation from Earth - However, from a space ship you could!
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com
However, prints will have to wait till things are back to normal.

I experimented with some new techniques lately, and combined those with my images. I enjoyed the results of adding some abstract elements to my work. Here my first two results...
​Of course my images are available as prints, please contact me if you're interested
​photos@wernerkaffl.com
However, prints will have to wait till things are back to normal.

Not just due the recent lockdown, but pretty amplified by it.
Nature instantly starts to re-claim areas abandoned or left alone by humans. There is a whole photography style around this subject.
The first 3 images were taken in Newtown, yesterday. And when I posted those on Facebook, I promptly got a comment that this were a poisonous weed. Well, it actually isn't. Its name is Cymbalaria Muralis, it's actually even eatable and has  some medicinal use as well (link below).
Calling something a weed doesn't mean it's useless, it only means some people might not know about its uses. Nothing in nature is useless, everything has its purpose (the purpose of humans is a bit debatable though).
What we humans, in our delusions of self importance tend to forget is, we share this planet with about 1.5 million other species. And that's only the official number. It's likely that there are up to 8.5 million other species on earth.
It would be interesting to see what happens, if we changed from a <human dictatorship> on earth to a democracy...
Not a popular opinion maybe, but I believe a very valid one!

Oh, btw, humans make up 1/3 of the whole mammal population on this planet. This still doesn't give us a majority, but it shows what the term <overpopulation> means. Also highlighted by COVID-19. Maybe it's time to re-think our obviously outdated approach to  our species' expansion ideas. Earth doesn't have unlimited space nor unlimited resources!

During the lockdown I did a lot of macro photography. Many people were asking about setups and other tech details, so I thought I write something up in my Services > How-To section on my website (here a direct link to the relating article, though there are a couple more if you're interested).
Here a final image and the actual setup behind it:
Canon 5d Mark 3, Canon EF 50 mm F1.8 lens, 13 mm extension tube and 31 mm extension tube (those are needed to get closer to the subject).
Background is a black umbrella on tripod, object and camera mounted on tripods, construction light on another tripod as a light source, RC remote for the camera, camera connected to PC to get a better view on what it actually sees (you see the screens in the background of the first BTS image).
I shot the scene with an aperture of F2.8, which results in a shallow depth of field (the soft effect around all not-in-focus parts of the image).
The blue-isch tint id not editing. It's one of the standard white balance settings in the camera, called <tungsten>. This is like using a tungsten based film in the older days.

Lockdown level 4 seems to come to an end, so I might get a bit further out of my home again. Especially down to the south coast, which is at some 5 km distance regional, rather than local. That's where this subject comes from, dried sea weed.
So here some of my last macros for now.
By the way, the blue-ish tint is not edited. It comes from a white balance setting before shooting, called <tungsten>. This has a similar effect as using a tungsten balanced film in the days of photo-film.