One of my favourite photography genres is night photography, especially the stars. In North Wales we have some cracking places to sit and watch the other worlds go by, weather permitting of course. I usually try to get out when there is no, or little moon, and as far away from the light pollution because even if you think you are somewhere dark, the sensor of the camera will pick up so much.
With my star trail shots, I started off using free software called Starstax (www.starstax.de) but now I use Photoshop to create the final image. All of the shots in this blog are taken with my Canon 550d, and most are shot on the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 lens with one exception when I used the Sigma 17-25 f2.8.
This is one of the first that I took. Its an old passenger ship that is permanently moored on the North Wales coast. The light pollution is coming from Liverpool and the Wirral.
One shot.
110 shots stacked.
The next shot is a small church in Cefn near St.Asaph.
124 shots. Would have been more but the clouds started coming in.
A month or so back, me and a friend went to Llyn Geirionydd.
134 shots. I actually took 170 but the lens started to fog up due to the cold.
This shot of llansylnnin church in the Conwy Valley was taken using the Sigma 17-35 at f2.8. The difference is unreal. It picks up a lot more stars. Unfortunately, the clouds came in early again! I didn’t get the shot to light up the foreground like I usually do but I think it works quite well.
Another angle from that night using the fish eye lens.
The Milky way is one of the most spectacular sights you will ever see. If you ever get the chance then do it, you won’t regret it.
These were taken on the Denbigh moors just after midnight in June.
And this one at nearly 2am in Snowdonia in July.
I look forward to spending some more nights searching for the milky way, watching hundreds of satellites pass above my head, and waiting for the sun to rise.
Aaron Crowe Photography 