A dark night is always good for putting things in perspective. There are so many stars and they are all so big and far away. It makes you feel insignificant in the best possible way. This photo has quite a story behind it. My family decided to climb a mountain on Christmas Day this year. The walk itself was lovely and we completed it with very few mishaps. However, as we started driving back we managed to pop our tyre on a rock. We had no spares and no phone reception; and Christmas Day is certainly not the best time to need to be rescued. Luckily, some walkers were also driving past and offered my parents a lift to the nearest village to ring the AA. It was a very cold, clear night. While I was waiting, I thought it would be a good opportunity to photograph the stars. But the problem with astrophotography is that it requires very long exposures; and even though I only took a few photos, I still had to do a lot of waiting around. After several out-of-focus shots (another consequence of it being dark), I was extremely glad when I took this one and could finally scuttle back into the (relative) warmth of the car. I'm glad to say that the AA did eventually arrive and give us a lift home - but it was 11 o'clock at night by the time we'd cooked our Christmas dinner!
Technical details: Canon 7D MKII + 24-70mm lens at 24mm; 20 sec at f/2.8; ISO 1000; with tripod.
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