Photographing the Milky Way is slow, deliberate work. It’s rarely about turning up and taking a shot than it is about planning nights around moon phases, weather windows, and darkness, then waiting to see if everything lines up. My focus is always on grounding the night sky in real places, using familiar landscapes to give scale and context to something that otherwise feels impossibly distant.
In the UK, the Milky Way is visible for a relatively short part of the year, mainly from spring through to early autumn. Light pollution makes it harder still, especially in the South East, but there are pockets of genuine darkness if you’re willing to seek them out. Places like the South Downs and sections of the coast can offer surprisingly good conditions, though they often come with long nights, cold winds, and a lot of waiting.
Whether the Milky Way is rising above coastal cliffs or stretching over open countryside, it adds a different dimension to landscapes I know well in daylight. If you’re interested in a slower, more abstract take on the night sky, you might also want to explore my star trails work, where movement and time become part of the image rather than a single moment.
