Perfectly clear skies are not what you want when shooting landscapes in the day but for night shots they are just what you want and with clear nights earlier this week I headed over to Fairhomes to shoot a star trail over the Derwent dam. Polaris (North Star) sits directly above the wall so is ideal for a star trail so I set up my camera using the live composite mode and started the exposure, as it was pitch black I wanted to show detail in the dam so walked towards the wall and chose a couple of positions and used my big torch to illuminate the stonework and trees rather than have just a dark silhouette. Once that was done it was just a case of letting the star trail build up over the next hour and close the shutter.

Photographer: Stephen Elliott