Nightscapes

I like to shoot nightscapes in winter, because it gets dark soon and the nights are often cold and clear. On the mountains of the Western Cape, South Africa, the temperature in winter can drop close to zero degrees Celsius and the air is clean and transparent. In the Karoo it is even better. There is almost no light pollution, as the population density is very low, so the night sky is literally crowded with stars. While I assemble my gear, I look up and the Milky Way is right above my head, and sometimes even other galaxies are clearly visible, like the Magellanic Clouds. And at night what is trivial in daylight might become mysterious or spooky: an old wooden trunk becomes a grim creature lurking in the dark ...