Description: A very overexposed image of a girl staring open-mouthed into a bright, cloudy, night sky, mid-flash as it is lit up by a meteor.

Still image taken from this IG video: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7JcDGXtORH/

Longer, unedited version with original audio: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7LrNlCNOmR/

She just happened to catch this meteor and her own reaction to it, entirely by accident. Absolutely watch the video, the shadows playing through the clouds as the meteor passes through the frame are stunning, but the most remarkable thing to me is this moment where laughing with her friends is interrupted and she doesn’t yet know where to look. It’s such a universal reaction and really special to see. This image is taken as one of the very bright flashes is blowing out the camera. Some frames are almost entirely white, others look much clearer. I chose a frame to make the subject legible but also give a sense of how overwhelmingly bright the flashes really were.

  • ExcrubulentOPEnglish
    1·
    1 month ago

    IG algorithm though I’d like it and it was right. It’s going semi-viral on there right now. At least there’s a general culture of crediting the OP so I was able to find them.

    • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      1 month ago

      That’s cool. I still haven’t dipped a toe into Instagram, but that video is the best thing I’ve ever seen on any IG link that anyone has posted. That’s very cool!

      • ExcrubulentOPEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        Honestly it’s enshittifying just like any other centralised platform. I’m on there because there are accounts there I can’t follow otherwise and they locked the content behind an account, which I genuinely hate.

        • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          1 month ago

          I didn’t step foot on the boarding ramp to Twitter, ig, any of it, and now it seems like they’re all just shooting themselves in the app, like they were this weird blip that I never learned anything about and now I don’t need to remember.

          • ExcrubulentOPEnglish
            1·
            1 month ago

            I’m legit jealous tbh. One thing I learned from Twitter is that I don’t really like Twitter, which I think says good things about me.

            • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
              2·
              1 month ago

              Have you looked into bluesky at all yet? That’s Dorsey’s new venture, right?

              I do jump in pretty heavy to places like Reddit or Lemmy, but they’re enough for me so far.

              • ExcrubulentOPEnglish
                1·
                1 month ago

                Nah, not interested in investing any more time in anything non-federated. If I were to join a twitter-like again it would be Mastodon.