Otter Pools by Night
The Otter Pools are a well known and popular destination for locals and tourists on the Raiders Road within the Galloway Forest - especially during the summer months in hot weather. The relatively shallow water is perfect for kids and adults to paddle, splash and explore.
However, it is a completely different place at night - extremely dark, cold and isolated. It is probably the darkest spot I've been to yet in the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park although the Raiders Road is now closed for the winter.
This image is the result of good planning. I needed to get to the location and get the sky and Milky Way captured before the moon rose too much, as it floods the sky with ambient white light and washes out the detail of the Milky Way. Funnily enough, I then had to wait for the moon to rise slightly to give enough light to capture detail in the foreground and then combine the images. A delicate balancing act that I feel I managed to achieve.
Fuji X-T2 with Samyang 12mm f2 NCS lens.
Foreground: 8 mins / f2 / ISO 200
Sky: 16 images stacked and aligned @ 15s / f2/ ISO 6400
Composited and finished in Photoshop CC 2019
View attachment 802202