A evening under the stars

I recently managed to get my wife and son to join me one evening down Nash Point, Vale Of Glamorgan to catch the last glimpse of our spectacular Milky Way.

Nash Point is a place I often find myself at, either during the day or at night. It’s a place that has ample of opportunities for photography from the magnificent heritage cliffs, to a ship wreck along the beach, and not to mention the historic lighthouse constructed way back in 1832!

This particular evening was the last opportunity for me to photograph the ‘core’ before it dips below the horizon until spring 2019, and it was made even more special as I got to share it with my family.

We arrived at the car park just before 8.30pm, we only had a small window of around 30 minutes before the core started to disappear, and before my son started to moan! So we headed to the bench near the top of the cliffs.

I quickly found my composition and set my focus to infinity, then I took a series of shots, 10 shots for the sky, and 5 shots for the foreground. Once I was happy with the images I directed my wife and son to jump into the scene for the final shot - a 1 minute exposure, where the subjects had to keep as still as possible! (anyone with children will know how difficult this is, let alone in the dark and freezing temperature). Once completed we made our way back to the car for a well deserved warm-up. To be fair, I think it was the quickest astrophotography session i’ve ever had, but definitely the most special!

The final image - consisting of 16 images processed through Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.