Ambassadors

Matt Aust
Astro, Landscape

I am a fully self-taught photographer and took my first Milky Way photo in the French Alps on a hiking trip with friends. We just wanted to take photos at night at some observatory and I accidentally captured the Milky Way on one of those photos. At that time I didn't know that photographing the Milky Way is actually a thing that you can do on purpose. So I educated myself on astronomy over the years and got better equipment that would work well for astro stuff. First I only went out to for nightscapes when I was on holiday. But I was hooked soon and started to really get into it. I soon started monthly trips around New Moon and I really became fanatic about doing astro photography. I am spending hours to hike up mountains, getting into nice landscapes under dark skies with low light pollution. I got better outdoor equipment and learned how to keep warm when spending nights in a tent around -20 °C (33.8 °F). I always go on my own to really get the relaxing effect of being outdoors in remote places. There are a lot of locations I am visiting regularly because I feel like I still haven't got the perfect photo out of it.

I started to get seriously into astro photography around 2015.

The only Tokina lens I own is the FíRIN 20mm F2 FE MF. I absolutely love the 20mm Firin MF, it is the sharpest lens I have ever seen. Almost coma free, very little vignetting, and I didn't even think about distortion ever. It's the 20mm reference lens for sure. It's just super crisp, great contrast, very well built and the handling is very good, too. I really love the small size and weight, it's perfect for my hiking trips.

Using models