Starscapes & Astrophotography
Night skies reveal a world beyond our own. From the soft glow of the Milky Way to constellations over quiet landscapes. Robin’s astrophotography captures the scale and beauty of the sky that many of us miss while living on a planet full of light pollution.
Starscapes sit at the quieter, more patient end of my photographic practice. Starscape photography requires planning, persistence, and a willingness to work through long, cold nights when most of the world is asleep. For me, photographing the night sky is a deeply absorbing experience. I’m drawn to placing the stars within landscapes that hold meaning, history, and a strong sense of wonder.
Living near the Chiltern Hills means working with compromise. Much of the area sits under Bortle 4 to 5 skies, where light pollution softens contrast and limits what can be revealed. Yet even here, on clear nights, the stars still make their presence felt. Subtle star fields, rising constellations, and at times the quiet glow of the Milky Way can be captured when conditions align. Photographed close to home, these scenes take on a more timeless quality, as the surrounding landscape slips away from the pace of daytime life.
Temple Island ~ Stars
Avebury Ancient Stones
Kimmeridge - Dorset
Marsh Lock in moonlight
Rock Pools ~ Kefelonia
Moon sets at The Temple
Patagonia, Chile
Marsh Lock ~ Henely
Calanais Standing Stones
Fog on the Thames, Oxfordshire
Moonrise at Mupe Bay, Dorset
Llanthony Priory, Wales
Millennium Stone at Ibstone Common
Stonor Park, Chiltern Hills
Keswick, Lake District
Calanais Standing Stones, Scotland
Boat and star, Henley
Old Barn in Pishil village, Oxfordshire
South Devon, Mily way
To experience truly dark skies, I travel widely across the UK and sometimes even further afield. Ancient sites such as Avebury Stone Circle offer a powerful connection between land, history, and sky, where standing stones are silhouetted against rotating stars that have passed overhead for thousands of years. It is near the mountains, however, where my starscape photography really comes into its own. From remote glens to high ridges, the absence of artificial light reveals the night sky in its full depth and complexity.
Many of these images are made during overnight camps in the hills. Long exposures are captured between moments of stillness, cold air, and the quiet sounds of the landscape. Carrying photographic equipment into remote places, waiting for darkness to settle, and working through the night brings a strong sense of adventure and often results in images that raise questions about our place in the universe. I hope these photographs encourage viewers to pause and reflect on this sense of scale, which is something easily lost in our busy, modern lives. Modern digital cameras are remarkable tools for this kind of Astrophotography, allowing subtle detail to be revealed without overpowering the scene.
My starscapes are not composites or imagined scenes. They are photographs made in real places, at real moments, shaped by weather, darkness, and patience. They invite the viewer to slow down, look upward, and reconnect with the vastness above, where the land beneath our feet meets the night sky