New Zealand's night skies are a magnet for photographers and the country is one of only three in the world to have a gold-rated Dark Sky Reserve -- the Aoraki Mackenzie reserve, which includes Aoraki Mt Cook National Park.
The famous Church of the Good Shepherd looks even better framed by the Milky Way. Photo / Caters News
In his photographs, Wilson uses the enormous galaxy to frame landmarks such as the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Waipapa Point Lighthouse, on a rocky promontory near the Catlins on the south-east coast of the South Island.
The wooden lighthouse alerts ships travelling along the treacherous coast, where the passenger steamer Tararua was wrecked in 1881 with the loss of more than 100 lives. Wilson used a 20-second exposure with an aperture of f3.5 shot through a 24mm lens on a Canon EOS 6D camera.
