Photographing the Night Sky by Alyn Wallace and Published by fotoVUE - On My Bookshelf S06E03
Photographing the night sky is difficult and requires specialised equipment. Right? Wrong! In Photographing the Night Sky, Alyn Wallace has written an encyclopaedia of everything you need to know to learn and develop your skills as a night sky photographer. Can Alyn make the capture of night sky images something all photographers can do?
An Encyclopedia of the Night Sky
I’ve always been a great admirer of night sky photography. My appreciation for this genre of photography stems from growing up in the Highlands of Scotland, where, on a clear you could see what felt like the entire universe above you head.
It is however a genre of photography that I’ve never properly attempted myself. The main stumbling block for me has been a lack of skills and knowledge, but also, it is perhaps that while I don’t mind getting up early in the morning, I’m a bit less keen on staying out all night.
When I received my copy of Photographing the Night Sky by Alyn Wallace I decided to change that. There was no point in having a copy of this book if I didn’t put what I learnt to good use.
So, in this special episode of On My Bookshelf, I not only tell you all about the encyclopedic levels of information in this book, but I also share the photographs that I captured using the knowledge I gained from this book. Enjoy!
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🛒 You can purchase Photographing the Night Sky by Alyn Wallace, here - https://www.fotovue.com/shop/books/photographing-the-night-sky-softback/
Night Sky Photographs from Dartmoor
The Milky Way over Great Staple Tor #1, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/4, 10 sec at ISO 12800.
The Milky Way over Great Staple Tor #2, Dartmoor, Devon - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 14mm, f/4, 10 sec at ISO 12800.
Photographing The Snowdonia Mountains | A fotoVUE Guidebook by Nick Livesey - On My Bookshelf S02E02
In the blog this week, join me and Nick Livesey as we spend the day photographing Snowdonia National Park, talking about his book Photographing the Snowdonia Mountains, and generally having a bit of a laugh. What better way to review a guidebook like this by heading out into the wilderness with the author himself!
Discovering The Work of Nick Livesey
Every now and again I find the work of a photographer and wonder why it's taken me so no long to discover them. They could be working professionals with many years of experience, but for some reason, I only just find out about them. Maybe it's more difficult these days with the noise from social media. With so many images out there on social media, it can be easy to miss something important as you whiz through Instagram during your morning coffee.
Every now and again though a photograph or video really catches my eye. This is how I discovered Nick Livesey. Though I can't exactly remember how I found his video, My Mountain Healing, it really struck a chord with me. If you haven't seen it, give it a watch below:
It's a short video, but it was genuine and funny, and you could see that Nick had a real eye for photographing the mountains. After watching the video a couple of times I decided I wanted to know more about Nick and his work. After a little bit of internet research, I discovered that not only did he have a solid body of work, but he was also well known in the climbing and hill walking community, and that his character and whit are almost as well-known as his photographs!
Though I did wonder how I hadn't heard of Nick before one thing was for sure and that was he seemed like the kind of person I would like to go out shooting with.
Photographing the Snowdonia Mountains
As regular readers of my blog will know, I have a series of videos called On My Bookshelf in which I share my thoughts on some of the photography books that I've purchased. For a while now I've been wanting to do an episode of On My Bookshelf on a Fotovue guidebook. These photography location guidebooks have a been a great source of information to me and I've built up a bit of a collection of them.
When I heard that Nick was publishing his very own Fotovue book, Photographing the Snowdonia Mountains, not only was I going to pick up a copy, but I also hoped that this would be the Fotovue book that would feature in On My Bookshelf.
Most of the episodes of On My Bookshelf are filmed at home in front of my bookshelf, but for a Fotovue location guidebook, this didn't seem appropriate. What better way to review a book like this than by heading out to one of the locations in the book. Then I had another thought. What if I can get the author himself to show me in person some of those locations?
Well, guess what? That's exactly what Nick agreed to do! So I'm very proud to share with you this very special episode of On My Bookshelf, filmed on location in Snowdonia National Park, and with Nick Livesey. Enjoy!
I don’t know if you could tell in the video, but that was one of the best days I’ve had out with the camera! I’ve always enjoyed the hills, but heading out with Nick was a real pleasure. It was absolutely fantastic spending the day in those hills and mountains. The conditions were often windy and snowy, and always very cold, but I loved it.
Nick has a genuine passion for his local area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a person so absolutely content to be outdoors, walking the hills. The look of wonder on his face as if it was the very first time he’d walked up a mountain. Being able to spend the day with Nick and to share in his passion was a real privilege.
On Your Bookshelf
If you did enjoy this video, then please do consider picking up a copy of Nick's excellent Photographing the Snowdonia Mountains. Even if you don't think you'd ever visit Snowdonia, the book is packed full of inspiring photographs and lots of useful information about photographing in the outdoors. You can pick up a copy of the book directly from Nick's website:
https://nicklivesey.co.uk/product/photographing-snowdonia-mountains/
Are you planning on getting a copy, or do you already have one? Do you have any of the other Fotovue titles? Do you have a favourite location in Snowdonia? Let me know in the comments below.
My Snowdonia Photographs
No blog post of mine would be complete without a landscape photograph! Here are some of my favourite images that I captured while out with Nick.
Snowdon from Clogwyn Mawr, Capel Curig, Snowdonia National Park - Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 VR at 36 mm, f/11, 1/2 sec at ISO 64, polariser and ND grad.
Yr Aran, Craig Wen and Moel Hebog from Bwlch Maesgwm, Snowdonia National Park - Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 VR at 34 mm, f/11, 1/60th sec at ISO 64, polariser and ND grad.
Snowdon and Moel Cynghorion from Moel Eilio, Snowdonia National Park - Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 VR at 52 mm, f/11, 1/40th sec at ISO 64, polariser and ND grad.
Snowdonia National Park Panorama from Moel Eilio, Snowdonia National Park - Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70 mm f/2.8 VR at 38 mm, f/11, 1/6th sec at ISO 64, polariser. 7 image panoramic stitch.
Photographing The Cobb in Dorset: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure
In the blog this week I head to Lyme Regis in Dorset to photograph The Cobb. You can also watch one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos so you can see how I captured the images featured in this blog.
Finally...A Break in the Weather
After what feels like an age, the weather forecasts finally started to show some better weather. January had been a challenging month for my photography. It was the normal combination of lack of time and poor weather, that resulted in not a lot of photography. For anyone who has read my blog for long enough, you'll know that January has historically always been a challenge for me.
It's not just the photography I've been missing, but also going out there and creating new videos for my YouTube channel.
Off to The Cobb
One of the locations that I've always wanted to make a video from is The Cobb in Lyme Regis. It's one of my favourite locations to shoot coastal images. I did actually try and make a video there last year, but I failed to prepare my gear properly. You can read all about that trip here.
So when the weather, and importantly the tide looked good for a dawn shoot at The Cobb I was super excited to finally make one of my 5 Minute Photo Adventure videos there. Here is the result:
I do hope you enjoyed that video and it has inspired you to photograph The Cobb. It's such a great location to photograph if you like shooting seascapes. Just remember to get there early in the morning (it can get busy with photographers), and watch out for those crashing waves!
Have you photographed The Cobb before? What is your favourite coastal location? Let me know in the comments below.
The Photographs
Here are the photographs you saw in the video, plus a couple of extras.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 19mm, f/13, 2.5 seconds at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and ND Grad.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 @ 22mm, f/11, 1/8th second at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser and ND Grad.
Nikon D850, Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 VR @ 65mm, f/8, 60 seconds at ISO 64, Lee Filters Circular Polariser.
And finally...
Just a word of caution when visiting The Cobb...