Photography under the stars. The Trossachs National Park, Scotland.

Ben A’an (454m) at sunset. Grid reference NN502 082

After careful planning this week with the weather and location, I decided to venture under the stars yesterday in the Trossachs National Park in Scotland. I headed off after work and arrived at Loch Achray car park around 1900hrs. With a heavy rucksack on, with camping and photography gear in it, I walked to the rocky outcrop of Ben A’an. I arrived there around 2015hrs. This gave me time to pitch my tent on a beautiful spot, get organised with my camera and drone, and also, something to eat and drink. Sun set yesterday was at 2125hrs, and I got some nice photos from my Nikon D5100, and from the Mavic Mini 4 Pro. The weather was gorgeous, very little wind and a few people around. I decided to be up all night, in awe of Scotland’s nature, and I am so glad I did it.

Six images stacked together in Lightroom (LR). 15s exposures, ISO 1600, F4, manual setting. An amazing experience under the stars! Outside my tent. An experience I wont forget in my lifetime.

I did some Astro photography with the DSLR on the tripod, the image looks great, the lens was pointing in a south westerly direction. I used a Tamron 10-24mm f3.5-4.5 lens. A nice wide angle lens to capture a lot of area in the night sky. I walked around for hours, and took lots on images. After the moon rise 0130, I went back into my one man tent until 0445hrs, and made coffee and had breakfast during the dawn. I did take panoramas with my drone including videos (I have not looked at them yet, I will tomorrow).

Those images really made me feel happy and energised, a real sense of escapism, and hope you like them too? I like the one of my tent and gives you a sense of being alone with nature, showing the scale of the stunning surroundings.

I will have another wild camp with my photography next month. It will get me outdoors, and hopefully I can capture something meaningful to me, and it can only improve my photography skills, and my hill fitness at the same time.

The Trossachs National Park is the gateway to the Scottish highlands, its landscape is so magical and inspiring, it will bring me back again for sure.

I will continue to showcase my images and blog posts, hoping you can be inspired to get out and take meaningful images like I do. Until the next one, have a great weekend.

I’ve learned very quickly that there is no wrong or right way to produce art (photography). I will continue doing what I want to do, this is important to me.

If you have read this blog post up to now, I really appreciate this. Enjoy the image below before moon rise.

My Bobcat-1 ten on Ben A’an. The light on the horizon on the left is from the small towns and the city of Stirling. To the right is from the small towns and the city of Glasgow. The horizon from where I stood is around 30km’s away.