One of my favourite experiences in nature has been nights spent camping on a remote island off the west coast of Mexico, home to tens of thousands of Magnificent Frigatebirds. Wanting to capture a unique perspective on the birds, I had specifically timed my first trip when there would be little to no moonlight in the night sky, allowing the stars to shine at their brightest. The brightest part of the night sky (the milky way core) would be most visible in the early morning hours of the night, so I got out of my tent at around 2:30 in the morning when I had a clear night to see what compositions I could create. While most of the birds were sleeping with their heads tucked into their feathers, there were some birds still awake or even flying around. Spotting a frigatebird that was awake and preening its feathers, I framed up a composition with the milky way behind. After quite a while of sitting quietly and motionless behind my camera in the dark, the frigatebird took off to join a few other frigatebirds flying around in the air. As I had been taking continuous photos of the frigatebird during this time, I managed to capture the take-off in the middle of one of my 5-second long exposures. This resulted in a neat ghosting effect on the frigatebird with its spread wings, farmed nicely by roosting frigatebirds in front of the starry night sky.