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Jordan Di Blasi Photography, South, Caerphilly (2026)

10/03/2024

The Winter Arch

STORY:

It’s been a while.. my first proper shoot in almost a year, fast forward to tonight, a freezing night up Pen-Y-Fan with and .19, just 2 nights after that spectacular aurora display over the U.K, so I couldn’t miss out on the next clear night this time.

5 years ago I took a shot very similar, albeit a lot lighter on the equipment, so to see the progress from then to now is great, a panoramic view of the Brecon Beacons and neighbouring towns, the winter arch towering above, all the winter sky’s wonders in one photo, with the abundance of light pollution I questioned if I’d actually get anything worth sharing but I was soon proven wrong, all targets I wanted to include shined bright, Orion Constellation with its many nebulae and stars, Pleiades, Andromeda Galaxy and many more, It’s turned out to be a very packed image which is what I set out to do.

EXIF:

Sky - f1.4/20s/ISO800 (9 Panels)
Land - f1.4/30s/ISO1600 (9 Panels)

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm f1.4
Benro MACH3 + B1

16/08/2023

Sunset at Caerphilly Castle.

Making the most of the nicer weather, couldn’t miss out getting some aerial shots of the castle under the surreal golden sunlight, seeing it all under these conditions really makes me appreciative of what’s been in plain sight all along.

01/03/2023

STORY:
A night of ups and downs. Myself and came back to Elan after almost a year to try capturing the winter arch and the Rho Ophiuchi complex but came back with almost neither, with the weather fighting against us and the moon present, we had little opportunities to capture, but within those small windows came this shot, the faint dust lanes of our galaxy arching over a vibrant blood orange moon setting on the horizon, bursts of colour across the sky including green airglow on the left caused by solar radiation in the upper atmosphere which is only visible in the remote parts of the world. So from what seemed like a bleak night of shooting resulted in something pretty special.

Check out for great Astrophotography and to see his results of this night.

GEAR:
Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro Tracker

EXIF:
(Panorama)
Fore - f1.4/ISO1600/30s (5)
Sky - f1.4/ISO1600/15s (6)

(This was a composite shot taken and different times and locations)

27/08/2022

Teide National Park, Tenerife

STORY:
After a 2 week holiday down in the Canary Islands, we ended the final week with a stargazing excursion, it presented the perfect conditions for astrophotography at that time, with the moon set and astronomical darkness present, the stars and our galactic core were on full show throughout the night, undoubtedly the best viewing of the night sky I have ever seen.

With the islands being a lot lower than the UK geographically, a lot more of the Milky Way core is visible that’s permanently below the horizon back here if you compare this to my previous images, also being above 2300m, theres less atmospheric distortion affecting the sky compared to being down near sea level which makes for a clearer view.

With the time constraints of the excursion, I dedicated all my time during the night to get as much data as possible of the night sky, which mean’t missing out any foregrounds, so I’ve had to resort to a landscape shot from earlier in the day on the excursion, so it was quite a task to transform a daytime shot into something that loosely resembles a night time landscape.

GEAR:
Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head

EXIF:
(COMP)
Fore - f10/ISO320/1/400s
Sky - f1.4/ISO2500/13s (6)

14/07/2022

Brecon Beacons

This is a composite image, foreground and sky taken at separate locations and times.

A little more on the artsy side this one. I’ve had this shot of the Milky Way up close for a year and felt it needed to be paired with a nice foreground to compliment it more, and it fit perfectly with the telephoto shot of Pen Y Fan and Corn Du that I’ve used in a previous post within a panorama.

Within the sky above the peaks you’ll see the seemingly huge Lagoon Nebula alongside the Trifid Nebula, and in the cropped out second image of the Core you can see the Omega and Eagle Nebula at the top of the image, each adds immense vibrancy to an already colourful viewpoint of our galactic core.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Samyang 135mm 2.0
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro

EXIF:
Brecon
Foreground - f2/ISO400/1.6s

Stack Rocks
Sky - f4/ISO1250/60s (5)

11/07/2022

The Wreck of Helvetia, Gower.

In 1887, this Norwegian Barque was forced ashore by unrelenting winds, 135 years later, the shipwreck still remains, submerged in the sands of the Rhossili Bay Beach, slowly rotting away from the high tides engulfing it every day.

Cool history behind this shipwreck, makes a change from the mountains and reservoirs for sure. This was shot back last August, having been out of action recently, I’ve had time to look back and salvage some of these old shots hoping to make something of them, and I couldn’t overlook this one, especially with the historical value it holds, but hopefully I’ll be back out again in the near future for new shots!

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Tamron 24mm 2.8
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro

EXIF:

Foreground - f4/ISO1600/25s
Sky - f4/ISO1600/135s (6)

03/06/2022

Three Cliffs Bay, Gower.

The Milky Way core is finally back with us!, and finally at a reasonable time in the night. After weeks of waiting for clear skies and the New Moon to arrive, myself and finally got the opportunity to shoot the Three Cliffs underneath the Galaxy for the first time, the tide was out to allow us to shoot up close, and opened up for pools and streams of water to lead the eye out towards the cliffs. To my surprise a meteorite snuck into frame on one of my only two shots at the very end of the night which made this shot that much better and also made walking back to the car with sand filled shoes a little less awful.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro

EXIF:

Foreground - f1.4/ISO3200/15s
Sky - f4/ISO1600/120s (2)

Check out Tom - to see his progression in Astrophotography after recently starting up.

08/04/2022

Elan Valley

An unbelievable night at the heart of Wales accompanied by a legend, .

With the weather forecast extremely unpredictable, it was a surprise to be welcomed by clear skies for most of the night, with staying down south, a new moon and it being a weekend, everything just lined up perfectly.

Pictured is the Craig Goch Dam and the surrounding valley, above is the Milky Way arching across the entire sky in a packed panorama. First time doing a tracked panorama, made easier using the MSM ‘V’ Bracket to keep things level throughout the panning.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro
MSM V Bracket

EXIF:

Foreground - f1.4/ISO3200/30s - 5 shots
Sky - f2/ISO800/120s - 8 shots

06/02/2022

The Three Cliffs

First time visiting Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower peninsula, I should of came here a lot sooner, picturesque in every direction but I came for the three cliffs alone which lined up perfectly with Orion above it, the curvature of the Bay leading the eye to the cliffs and the sky make for the perfect composition, can’t wait to return to this area once Milky Way season has started.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro
Kase Focus Tool

EXIF:

Foreground - f1.4/ISO1600/25s
Sky - 13x f4/ISO1600/75s

31/01/2022

The Hunter above the Vale.

Didn’t take long to come back to Dunraven Bay, this time to reshoot the ever colorful Orion constellation, started the night searching for foregrounds with the awesome , Settled upon a crumbling cliff edge, which still doesn’t sound like a good idea but resulted in this viewpoint of the beach and the curved formation of rock leading to the Channel.

With the help of a new workflow, this is by far the best shot of Orion I’ve produced to date, exposing much more nebulosity than previous images. Had to cut the shooting short because of the approaching tide and my idiotic placement of the tracking setup but overall more than a successful night.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro
Kase Focus Tool

EXIF:

Foreground - f3.2/ISO3200/25s
Sky - 36x f4/ISO1600/75s
Darks - 10x f4/ISO1600/75s

05/12/2021

Cygnus and the Beacons.

(COMP)

This has been a bucket list shot of mine, Cygnus rising above a beautiful landscape, and it doesn’t get much beautiful than the snow capped Brecon Beacons.

Since having the camera modified, Cygnus has been a must shoot area for me in the night sky, with an abundance of nebulae and supernova remnants, most notably, the North American Nebula and Pelican Nebula just up from the center, and also the Veil Nebula to the bottom left. Such a unique area of the sky that all astrophotographers should be aiming their cameras at.

Storm Arwen hitting the UK added a lot of uncertainty but luckily enough the winds died down at the time of shooting to be able to pull this off.

GEAR:

Canon 6Da
Tamron 24-70 2.8
Samyang 135 2.0
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro
Kase Focus Tool

EXIF:
(Pontsticill Reservoir)
Foreground: 135mm, f4, ISO400, 1/30s
(Brecon)
Sky: 40 Lights/15 Darks, 70mm, f4, ISO1600, 75s

28/11/2021

Brombil Reservoir.

(COMP)

Finally back out for the winter sky, this time at the stunning Brombil Reservoir in Port Talbot. The turquoise water caused by the algae gives this place such a unique look, perfect match for the colourful Orion constellation.

(Sky shot at Southerndown, for lesser light pollution really make the nebulae stand out.)

EQUIPMENT USED:
Canon 6Da
Sigma 20mm 1.4
Benro Tripod/Head
Star Adventurer Pro
Kase Focus Took

Jordan Di Blasi Photography

10/03/2024

16/08/2023

01/03/2023

27/08/2022

14/07/2022

11/07/2022

03/06/2022

08/04/2022

06/02/2022

31/01/2022

05/12/2021

28/11/2021

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