Night Photography

Walking at night is a brilliant experience. Yes, in the day you can see further and there’s sunlight to warm your stupidly demanding skin. We get it you need vitamin D, chill out. But at night, there are the eerily finger-like tree branches looking to grab your face without warning and the endless shadows of the forest which, before your eyes adjust, just looks like a murky soup into which you’re blindly walking. Ok, I’m not making it sound appealing, but i think i’d describe it as creepy serenity. Notwithstanding the intriguing sinister night, there is something that is worth the effort to venture outside into the cold for, something that always takes my breath away; the stars.

Stars have intrigued people for centuries and after looking at all the incredible astrophotography all over the internet and seeing my own incredible celestial light show in Morocco, I thought i’d try and capture the wonder of the night sky for posterity.

All this mysterious dark beauty of the night can be enjoyed at your leisure, without the interruption of people. This makes photography, especially the type where you have to use a tripod, a thousand times more bearable for me. Leave me to take photos in peace, you animals.

Before this year i’d never pulled out the tripod and tried night photography before, with the exception of the one night in Ghent, where photos were required. Unfortunately, my uni is close to London and therefore the majority of the shots shown here were affected by the light pollution. However, luckily there was a park where we could go, which gave myself and my trusty photography companion Tim, a fighting chance to see some stars.

The photos shown here are my first attempts over a few walks and the very starry photos are from home, which is much more rural.

Edit – for a few more practised shots of our stellar neighbours check out these posts. In the first, I found my way to South Eastern England for some rural camping. And in the second I found some of the clearest skies in the world and managed to capture the intricacies of the Milky Way.