The Milky Way
Planning, patience and some luck all played a part in capturing this celestial wonder over an iconic British landmark
My collection of images of St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall has grown over the years, with sunsets, sunrises, low tides and high tides. I have photographed the Mount many times throughout every season and from every vantage point.
One view on my wishlist was to shoot the Mount with the Milky Way above. It sounded straightforward enough until I realised how many elements had to come into play to get ‘the shot’! The viewpoint was the easy part. The old causeway at St Michael’s is uncovered at low tide, revealing lovely cobbled stonework which snakes its way toward the Mount. I knew that this shoot had to coincide with a low tide – ideally receding. Knowledge of the position and timing of the galactic core of the Milky Way was crucial.
Thankfully a handy app on my phone helped in planning this shoot, along with some photo pals who all agreed to meet up and shoot into the ungodly hours too. Photopills is a great app, as it shows sun, moon and Milky Way positions throughout the year in any given location. You can plan your shoot ahead of time and increase your chances of success, all from the comfort of your armchair. On top of the technicalities of tracking the heavenly bodies and tides there was still the British weather to contend with. Thankfully lady luck was on side, and the chosen evening was clear and relatively still. In fact the most challenging aspect on the lead-up to the main shoot was explaining to people passing along the causeway what I meant when I told them “Yeah, you carry on, I can clone you out later”.
As dusk fell, I set up a panoramic stitch shot once the lights on the castle had come on. I was very glad that
I was glad that I had decided to wear my wellies: to retain a full reflection of the Mount in the water meant wading out
I had decided to wear my wellies: to retain a full reflection of the Mount in the water meant wading out to the side of the causeway. The Milky Way started to become visible at around 11:30pm, and thankfully the lights on the castle had gone out. This was a relief as they would have caused major exposure problems. The tide had dropped right back now, and it was a waiting game for the galactic core to come into position (or the world to spin around a little more, to be precise). I had framed my main images and set focus using the depth of field scale on the 17-40mm lens, set exposure to 30 seconds at f/4 aperture. ISO was set at 3200, high enough to be sensitive but not causing excessive noise. Any longer than 30 seconds and stars start to trail, appearing blurry in the image. It all came together beautifully in the end. Planning, patience and a smidgen of luck resulted in a fantastic shoot.