A HARD NIGHT’S DAY

(WITH APOLOGIES TO LENNON AND McCARTNEY)

When your alarm goes off at half past midnight, it either means you’re catching an early holiday flight or (in my case) you have somewhere else special to be. It’s the start of Milky Way core season and this will be my first astrophotography session of 2022.

An hour later and I’m on the M4 heading to the Gower Peninsula. It’s surprisingly busy for this time of night at midweek. Can’t these people sleep?  

It’s a bit of a trek to the beach from the car park but by 03:00 I’ve set up and I’m letting my eyes adjust to the dark. I’ve got the place to myself which means a free hand in choosing where to shoot from. The galactic core rises at around 03:15 and high tide is at 04:00 so I’ve got time to spare.
 
While I wait for the main event I spend some time looking at the Northern night sky. It’s beautiful, the greatest show on earth, requires no subscription to view, and is totally addictive. I always start by finding The Plough and tracking across to Polaris. I can now make out Cassiopeia and then take my final view of The Winter Circle before it disappears from our night skies for another eight months.

Back to the reason I’m here. It’s a beautiful late March night with clear skies (as forecast), no breeze, and the temperature is bearable at around 5C but it’s extremely humid. Within a few minutes I can feel dew forming on my jacket. I fire off a few test shots to get my composition right and then make exposure and focus adjustments. I’m facing South East, looking at the famous Three Cliffs where I can see the remains of the recent Sahara dust clouds in the sky. The Core should appear any time now and I need to get a lens warmer on to prevent the damp air fogging the front element. 

Oh no ! Disaster - I’ve left the lens warmers back at home !! ^*#@%$ !!

I’m glad no-one’s listening as I’ve just turned the air blue as I realise that there’s little chance of any decent images tonight. What a plonker ! I try and grab a few images by wiping the lens after each shot but it’s a losing battle and the Core hasn’t appeared yet. The incoming tide forces me to move further up the beach and I set up again but my heart’s not in it now and the new composition isn’t working as well as my first set up. Back at the car it’s nearly 05:00 and the first few signs of the new day are showing in the sky. The Vikings called it the Wolf Light due its grey hue. I have a coffee and reflect on lessons learned tonight. That damp air has soaked most of my kit, so instead of feeling sorry for myself I get everything dry before putting it away for the journey home. 

A thought occurs (I know I’m stretching credibility here but bear with me). Damp air early in the morning can often result in low lying mist in the South Wales valleys and checking the weather apps on my ‘phone confirms that my hunch could be right. There’s a location I’ve been planning to visit for some time when there’s mist around, so instead of heading home I set off in the opposite direction. 

There’s an ancient oak woodland clinging to the side of a South Wales mountain. It’s a perfect place to be on a foggy day. It’s filled with twisted, gnarly, moss-covered Sessile Oaks and is very popular with photographers in this part of the world. You can find lots of images on social media taken here but the bizarre thing is nobody ever names the location in their posts. Now there could be a couple of reasons for this - maybe they don’t want the location to get too busy or they merely want to protect the ancient, precious environment found there. Or perhaps they just want the place to themselves ! In any case, it’s taken me a while to discover the actual location so I’m hoping my research pays off.

Nearly two hours later I’ve arrived and I’m stumbling up the mountain in thick fog, which isn’t ideal for a first visit as I’m not familiar with the place. Not for the first time I’m grateful for the O.S. app on my mobile as it’s once more keeping me on the right heading. The fog’s so thick I’ve probably passed the wood a couple of times so I stop for a coffee and check my bearings. If I’m honest I’m tired now and need some food, as by my calculation it’s near my lunch time after such an early start. As luck would have it there’s an out of date Tunnock’s Caramel bar in my back pack, I’m only around ten minutes away and the fog doesn’t look like lifting despite a breeze picking up. 

I’m soon immersed in this special place. It’s everything it promised to be and I’m feeling more than a bit pleased with myself. The fog is thick enough to penetrate well into the woods so the choice of compositions is plentiful. I just need to do it justice. Two hours fly by and I’m really happy with my images so I think it’s time to try and find my way back to the car. There’s absolutely no point in trying to rely on your sense of direction in thick fog. You’ll be lost before you know it and I’ve put too many miles in the legs today to mess about. I eventually emerge back on to the single track road half mile from the car and it’s all uphill ! Ah well. I’ve learned an enormous amount over the last few hours so I’ve no right to complain.  

I’m soon at the car and heading home with mixed feelings. I’m fairly meticulous in planning and organising a shoot but haven’t done astrophotography for a few months and that missing piece of kit was a show stopper so I need to give myself a talking to. It hasn’t ended too badly though. A self inflicted photography failure has been rescued by a last minute change of plan, meaning the night/day hasn’t been a complete disaster. But I won’t make the same mistake again. On reflection, I’m confident of a few decent images and can’t wait to see them on the computer. Not today though. I need food and then some sleep. 

For the record, I arrived home 11 hours after setting out and walked almost 8 miles over both locations.

Easy this photography lark ain’t it? Schoolboy errors aside……..