Wesley's Tool-Box

2025 was an interesting year with lots of chaos and progress, much of which resulted from the events that took place in 2024. Now we're entering 2026, the year of the Fire Horse. Like the Sun in the picture, I hope everyone outshine the murkiness that is the clouds and rise up.

Device: iPhone 17 Pro Max
Settings: 200 mm equiv. - ISO 25 - 1/940s - f/2.8
Time: 2026-01-01 07:56 KST
Location: Naju, Korea

Nuri, Korea's indigenous rocket also known as KSLV-2, took off from Naro Space Center for the first time in 2 and a half years at 1:13 AM today. This launch was the 4th overall, and also the first ever nighttime launch. I wasn't sure how well the photos and videos would turn out since all the rocket launches I've been to happened during the day. But I came in prepared and got the results I wanted.

For the equipment, I brought my well-trusted Nikon P1000 for the superzoom and my new iPhone 17 Pro Max as the back-up, relatively wide angle shot. Both were fortunately sensitive enough for capturing the visuals during this clear and dark night.

As with last year, I pre-ordered a new iPhone for pickup on the launch day at an Apple retail store location within Korea. This time, I went with Apple Myeongdong. As the location is popular with tourists, foreign and domestic alike, lots of media coverage was made. I ended up in many of the photos taken by the press, and JTBC even did a short interview with me about the new Pro / Pro Max series.

Video Coverage
- JTBC News (reuploaded at Naver News)

Press Photos
- News1 news article
- Individual photos: #1, #2, #3

It's been more than 2 years since a total lunar eclipse could be observed. 2025 would have two occurrences to make up for the hiatus, but the one in March took place largely in the Americas. So I was waiting for the September one. Sadly, the weather forecast was dire, with rain and clouds expected to obstruct the view. To avoid this I decided to travel to the east, and ended up booking a flight to Hiroshima, Japan.

While Hiroshima did have relatively clear skies in the early evening, it would succumb to clouds and mild thunderstorm later in the night. Still, I was able to capture the progress of the eclipse with my iPhone 16 Pro when the clouds temporarily subsided, as you can see here. A timelapse video of the entire eclipse was also captured with my iPhone 15 Pro, which has been uploaded to YouTube.

Device: iPhone 16 Pro
Settings: 120mm equiv. - ISO 640~4000 - 1/15~1/31s - f/2.8
(ISO 4000, 1/15s | ISO 1600, 1/15s | ISO 4000, 1/15s | ISO 640 1/31s)
Time: 2025-09-08 01:37 ~ 05:06 JST
Location: Hiroshima, Japan

If you look towards the south around 9 to 10 PM in summer, Milky Way can be seen flowing down to the horizon... if you're lucky enough to be in a place with a dark sky. As someone living in a city, I have to rely on a camera's long exposure to catch a glimpse of it, like what I've done 9 years ago. Still, I wondered if iPhone's Night Mode can replicate this magic even after a decade of urbanization that took place here. As it turns out, the answer is a resounding "yes". A bit of post processing needed to be done to bring out the details, but the same can be said for the earlier photo as well.

All I had to do for the capture is to wait for a clear night sky, move to the edge of the city with fewer lights, set the phone on a tripod, and do a 30-second Night Mode exposure. Fortunately, the Liberation Day weekend provided the right atmospheric conditions, and the southern part of the city is still just full of rice fields after all these years. I was worried a bit about iPhone's finicky focus under low light, but it didn't cause a trouble this time.

In the end, I was able to take more than twenty consecutive photos of the Milky Way. Due to the ambient glow in the sky, the original photos still came out looking a bit washed out. But adjusting some settings like contrast and black point in Pixelmator Pro fixed that issue. If you want to see all the photos I took this day, take a look at this video.

Device: iPhone 16 Pro
Settings: 24mm equiv. - ISO 1250 - 30s - f/1.78
Time: 2025-08-15 22:08 KST
Location: Naju, Korea
Processed with Pixelmator Pro 3.7

What if you don't have a tripod handy? Well, you can do the Night Mode photography with bare hands and still capture the Milky Way, as you can see here. As a matter of fact, my first attempts were done this way. When I realized that a reasonably good quality can be had despite the relatively short (10 seconds) exposure and high ISO, I brought out the tripod later on. It's amazing what smartphones can do these days.

Device: iPhone 16 Pro
Settings: 24mm equiv. - ISO 2000 - 10s - f/1.78
Time: 2025-08-15 20:56 KST
Location: Naju, Korea
Processed with Pixelmator Pro 3.7