The Wizard's House, Ceredigion, West Wales
Cwmtydu Lime Kiln, Ceredigion, West Wales
The Milky Way above my home village in West Wales
Returning from an evening's night photography at the beach, I had just walked into the home stretch, when I noticed the Milky Way's dense star and dust clouds above the houses. That streetlight was going to cause a challenge, so the foreground ended up being a blend of exposures: one for the streetlight and another for the surrounding buildings. As you can see, the streetlight part of the image is still blown out, but I decided I could live with that! I used one of the images from the stack for the foreground where the security lights from the house on the left had kindly lit the scene for me.
Sky: 12 image stack, 24mm, f3.5, 10 secs, ISO5000
Foreground Houses: 24mm, f3.5, 10 secs, ISO5000 (using one image from the above stack)
Streetlight: 24mm, f3.5, 10 secs, ISO1600
Holiday Cottage, Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
A May holiday on Bodmin Moor. I was hoping for some dark skies during the week, but sadly, only one evening provided a very brief window of the night sky. This shot is looking towards the south east. Just a few minutes later, the clouds from the west had smothered the scene!!
This image used a slightly different approach to usual in that I exposed the 11 shots for the foreground during blue hour, so that there was some detail in the background fields and trees. Even though the light was fading fast, I was still able to shoot at f8 for 20 seconds and at ISO 100 for the foreground details. I waited until the sky was properly dark before exposing the single shot for the night sky. I used my colour corrected torch to light the vegetation around the outside seating area. All other light came from the inside room lighting.
Sky: single, 14mm, f3.5, 15 seconds, ISO 3200 | Foreground: 11 shots, 14mm, f8, 20 seconds, ISO 100
Allen's Shaft and Stack, Botallack mining district, Cornwall
Botallack mine buildings, Cornwall
Wheal Edward, Botallack, Cornwall
Kenidjack Castle, above Kenidjack Valley, Cape Cornwall
Kenidjack Castle, above Kenidjack Valley, Cape Cornwall
Ruined mine buildings, Cwmystwyth Metal Mines, Ceredigion, Wales
Just a short distance from the holiday accommodation were the ruins of the famous Cwmystwyth metal mines. The site is very atmospheric at any time of the day, but particularly so at night. This shot was taken during astronomical twilight, and there was a howling gale blowing, making it very difficult to keep the tripod steady. I had waited just long enough to make sure Saturn and Jupiter were visible in the sky before making the exposure. The light painting was added using my small torch, and took 20 exposures to achieve the effect I wanted.
Sky: Single shot, 20mm, f4, 13 seconds, ISO 5000 | Foreground: 20 blended images, 20mm, f5, 10 seconds, ISO 640
Thunderstorm, Northamptonshire
The lightning by itself is dramatic, but looks even more impressive when placed in a context familiar to us. Here, the lightning flashes above some housing, and serves to emphasise how small we are compared to the forces of nature.
Single shot: 24mm, f8, 30 seconds, ISO 400
Parish church under the celestial north pole, Northamptonshire
Star trails are very simple to create, but always make for a dramatic visual effect. Here, the star trail sequence comprised 30 images, each of 30 second duration. This meant that the total shooting time was only 15 minutes, so not too long a wait in the cold night air.
Tysoe Windmill, Warwickshire
The objective here was to place the comet between the upper sails of the windmill, as if the mill was throwing up its arms to welcome this celestial marvel!
Sky and Foreground : 70mm, f2.8, 6 secs, ISO 5000 (10 stacked images)
Parish church, Northamptonshire
Tysoe Windmill, Warwickshire
Sky : 24mm, f2.8, 10 secs, ISO 2500 (single) | Foreground : 24mm, f5, 10 secs, ISO 640 (10 exposures)
Parish church, Northamptonshire
