[Travel to Maldives] How to photography the milky way. + luminous plankton!

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 3200. 30sec

Seeing luminous plankton, taking pictures of the milky way, recording when snorkeling

These were my wishes for the trip to Maldives in Feb, 2017.

The reasons why I chose Maldives were,

1. It was quite close from UAE. (it takes about 4 hours)
2. I was captivated by the photos of luminous plankton from the Internet.

While I was searching which resort I should visit, I recalled the trip to New Zealand, that I missed taking photos of the milky way.
At that time, I wasn't prepared at all. I didn't know how to photography of it. Because I was able to see so many stars, I took pictures of the sky, but I just got constellations by fortune.
After coming from New Zealand, I searched photos with stars taken from there and I found a lot of people uploaded the photos of the milky way on the same spot. :'(
How come! I even found that if I moved the camera a bit, then I would be able to capture the milky way.

Anyway, I blamed for my cameras instead, and persuaded my husband to buy Sony Alpha A7 M2. XD
Thanks god! I could get it from the Christmas sale!

Because I'd used Canon 450D for 8 years, I felt the color of the photos were worse than it of my mobile phone.
Since I've changed from Canon to Sony, the release didn't work. Thus, I bought a remote controller, which was a lovely item!! I was able to take a clear picture of the milky way since I didn't need to touch the camera at all.

1st day

I went outside to take pictures at 11pm.
I set the file type as RAW, while balance as tungsten, the lens as manual focus, and started to photography!

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/4.0. ISO 1600. 15sec

At midnight, the tide was on the ebb. Thus, I was able to fix the tripod on the beach, and took pictures of here and there.

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/4.0. ISO 1600. 15sec

While checking the pictures, I noticed that what I wanted to take was the milky way, not just stars.
I'd searched "milky way Maldives" a lot from Google before coming.

But, frankly, I didn't know about constellation or the milky way, so asked to my husband and he said,

The brightest part of milky way is near the Sagittarius, and I guess it would be arose when sunrise

Thus, I gave up and went to bed.

2st day

In the evening, I recalled SkyView Free which I installed on my mobile phone.

I set my location by pressing the 'tool' button, and searched the Sagittarius from the sky by moving the phone.

Because I captured this image in March, the time is a bit differ from when I was there.

I found Sagittarius, and Saturn and Scorpio were also near there.
I clicked the Saturn from the mobile phone, and moved my phone along the big circle, and found it will be arose around 5 am. (The red line here is horizon.)

Trying wouldn't hurt, so I went to bed at 9pm, and woke up at 3.30am.

Because the tide was on the flow, it was impossible to set the tripod on the beach.
I walked to here and there, and found the perfect place, the sea wall!
It was good since water would never reach there, and I was able to capture some other figures such as trees.

I woke up quite early, but the Scorpio arose after 5am as SkyView showed me.

After waiting for more than 30 secs, I finally saw the milky way from my camera. I cannot describe how happy I was!

Sony Alpha a7 II. Sony EF 28-70m. f/4.5. ISO 3200. 30sec

Because I didn't like noise on the photo, I set ISO as 3200, but even the galaxy was taken vaguely, I increased the exposure using LightRoom after coming home.

The photos of milky way that I found from Google were very clear, and the tones were much better than I took.
I wonder if they brought an extremely expensive camera and lens, or it would be better if I took it in summer (I've taken the milky way in summer from the desert near Abu Dhabi, but haven't checked it yet. So lazy.)

3rd day

I went to bed around 9pm because I was so tired, and woke up at 4.30am.
However, it was cloudy.

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 3200. 25sec

While I was taking pictures of here and there, my husband suddenly said,

Wow? It's luminous plankton!

Thought there weren't tons of plankton as I saw from Internet, I was able to see a few of them when the waves crashed.
It was so cute!

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 3200. 25sec

You can see one blue dot on the right side. It's the luminous plankton.
The way of taking pictures of plankton is similar to the it of stars, since it's taken at night.

It was quite different from what I expected. :D

Ref. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/maldives-beach-becomes-sea-of-stars-thanks-to-bioluminescent-phytoplankton-9072197.html

I traveled to the same resort in November again, and there was no plankton at all.
One staff there told me that they would appear in the mid of December. But I think it's up to one's fortune. I searched about it from Google, and everybody who saw them mentioned different resorts, and different months.
One of my friend told me she saw them from a beach in Oman.

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 2000. 30sec

5.25am. As the time was closer to the sunrise, the sky near to the sea turned red. Because of the light, it wasn't easy to capture the milky way.

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 1600. 25sec

5.35am. The color of the sky is keep changing .

Sony Alpha a7 II. Canon EF-S 10-22m. f/3.5. ISO 100. 1sec

5.55am. The final day of the travel came.

Why can't I take a rest even from the Maldives?