Q&A with Night Skies Photographer Andre Costantini

Andre Costantini is a seasoned photographer who has been taking photos professionally for over 20 years. He holds a bachelor of fine arts in photography from Mason Gross School of the Arts and works with Tamron as a freelance photographer and photography teacher. Costantini shoots all types of photography, but a lot of his work is for arts organizations, marketing and public relations. Andre currently lives in Woodbourne, N.Y.

Q: What is exciting about shooting the night skies?

A: The idea of the night sky, the Milky Way and the universe is a theme people definitely feel connected to and it’s something spectacular to capture. Every time we have someone who’s never shot it before, and the first time that they see it on the back of their camera there’s just this gasp of awe. So to be able to bring that type of feeling and to help people understand how to be able to capture these things is one of the reasons we enjoy doing this.

For me it’s the challenge of doing something new that is the exciting thing. It’s finding new ways to do night photography, like in the case of  workshops and courses. Part of it has to do with the technology side in terms of coming out with new lenses, and cameras that are able to capture things that you couldn’t 15 years ago. It wasn’t possible to do this type of photography because the technology wasn’t there. So it becomes a fun, interesting challenge to be able to apply all these different tools to create things that have some sort of artistic narrative.

Q: Why can photographers at all skill levels benefit from Night Skies Photography Workshops?

A: Obviously anyone could go to these places on their own, but it’s a matter of understanding where to be and how to be there and then how to use your equipment the right way to capture this stuff. It’s not that it’s super difficult but having the support and direction to be able to capture those images is pretty cool. People shouldn’t feel intimidated by it. At any skill level, people can come away with really amazing images. So that’s one of our goals. People come back with really great pictures of different things.

See Andre’s work here: www.sillydancing.com

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