"I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion; I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost, in time, like tears in rain." - Bladerunner
Photographing this baobab tree in Tanzania that night, I was constantly reminded of this quote from Bladerunner, and how utterly extraordinary a moment it was for me, and how, no matter how much I try, language is speechless in the wake of such a moment.
Two things about the approach. One, I wanted to photograph them at night, as I felt that was when the baobabs would feel the most magical. I put the camera on a tripod, and did assorted long exposures from evening into night, making sure I could get the stars. I then plated difference exposures together to create the final image. Secondly, I felt it was critical to give the viewer a sense of how massive these giant trees truly are. Thus, all the images have a local Maasai tribes person in them to give a sense of scale.
