Dan Sands Photography

Dan Sands Photography 🏆 Amateur Photographer of the Year 2023
📍Crickhowell, South Wales
📷 Landscape, Wildlife, Weddings & more

A collection of Landscapes, Coast & Sunset photos taken across Devon & Dorset. Highlighting the beauty of the Jurassic Coast, Studland, Purbeck and the Dorset & Devon Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

NGC 7000 / North American NebulaAround a month ago I picked up a used telescope from Facebook Marketplace and have been ...
14/06/2026

NGC 7000 / North American Nebula

Around a month ago I picked up a used telescope from Facebook Marketplace and have been itching to give it a go ever since - in typical style the clouds have been relentless since, but last night I finally got a chance to put it all to the test.

It was a very messy session, I couldn't for the life of me get the guide camera in focus, polar alignment was almost impossible to get right (I settled on 4' 12" total error in the end!), and as we're now in the summer months the sky is never truly dark (eternal twilight), BUT having loaded up the frames earlier and stacked them in Siril I'm totally blown away by what was possible.

This was taken from my back garden, no guiding, just an old EQ-5 mount! Total, total madness.

Scope: Askar SQA55
Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ-5 Pro SynScan
Camera: ZWO 585MC Pro
(Gain 200, Cooled to -10deg)

Total integration was 2hrs - 120 frames at 60s each frame.

Fair to say I have definitely been bitten by the astro bug!

Photography is officially the longest time I’ve ever spent on a hobby, coming up for almost exactly 10 years I’ve been d...
13/05/2026

Photography is officially the longest time I’ve ever spent on a hobby, coming up for almost exactly 10 years I’ve been dabbling now! One thing I’ve always loved (and frankly been a little dumbfounded about) is inspiring others though, so when a family friend asked if it was ok for her son to write a school project about my work I was incredibly flattered!

Here’s the poster he made, I hope he gets top marks (though maybe I’m biased! 😍)

Last nights full "Flower Moon" rising behind the silhouette of Pen Y Fan - was very touch and go with the cloud coverage...
02/05/2026

Last nights full "Flower Moon" rising behind the silhouette of Pen Y Fan - was very touch and go with the cloud coverage, and ultimately the cloud won on this occasion preventing the alignment I was looking for, there's always next time :)

Lyrid Meteor Shower 2026You know, it's funny when you're a landscape photographer, before you know it you start compilin...
24/04/2026

Lyrid Meteor Shower 2026

You know, it's funny when you're a landscape photographer, before you know it you start compiling a list of totally random favourite places - you'll have a favourite tree, bench, groyne, pier, jetty, bridge, path, bus stop and bend in the road - well, since moving to South Wales this bend in the B4560 has become somewhat of a favourite for me.

So, when eying up potential locations to shoot this years Lyrid Meteor shower with a North / North East bearing I naturally went to my favourite bend in the road!

I ended up taking a total of 788 exposures over the course of 2 evenings, that's a total exposure time of 6 hours and 34 minutes and I captured the grand total of ONE Lyrid meteor (seen here) and if I'm being honest, this could well just be another iridium flare! I'm going to class this years Lyrids therefore as a bit of a flop, but I did still like the composition here so thought I'd share it anyway.

📷 Canon 5D Mk IV with 16-35mm f/2.8 L II lens
🔭 MoveShootMove Nomad Star Tracker

Sky: 166 frames @ 30s / f2.8 / ISO 800 / 35mm tracked, stacked in Siril + Single frame for Meteor composed on top.

Foreground: Single frame @ 20s / f5.0 / ISO 100 / 16mm

The Lyrid Meteor shower, or.. not. Last night I shot 305 images, over the course of 2 hours and 53 minutes, tracked at 3...
22/04/2026

The Lyrid Meteor shower, or.. not.

Last night I shot 305 images, over the course of 2 hours and 53 minutes, tracked at 30s each around Vega at 16mm - hoping to catch at least a couple of juicy meteors.. after reviewing each of the 305 frames in close detail, I found a total of 3 potential meteors, but each so small in the frame they were barely a few pixels across. What you see here is a couple of iridium flares- easily confused for meteors, but actually just satellites reflecting light.. on that subject, guess how many of the 305 frames contained satellite trails? 10? 20? Nope, every. single. frame! 😭

Another shot from Saturday night on the Glanusk Estate - Lewis Bray was walking back from his car with his red head torc...
21/04/2026

Another shot from Saturday night on the Glanusk Estate - Lewis Bray was walking back from his car with his red head torch on during a long exposure, quite like how it turned out ☺️

Foreground - 64s, 16mm, ISO800, f/2.8
Sky - 370s, 16mm, ISO800, f/5.6 tracked with Move Shoot Move Rotator Nomad 🔥

The Tower at GlanuskMy first milkyway core shoot of the evening last night, and boy was it a special one!With special pe...
19/04/2026

The Tower at Glanusk

My first milkyway core shoot of the evening last night, and boy was it a special one!

With special permission for access and shooting granted with huge thanks to Glanusk Estate I headed to the Tower with Lewis Bray and got a couple different perspectives ☺️

Started the night with an alignment with Cassiopeia, before shooting the Milkyway core across the bridge, and wrapped up with an alignment of Ursa Major as blue hour took hold.

A very memorable and enjoyable evening with awesome conditions. Must admit the 2:15am alarm call was tough though! 🤣

The past few nights have been fantastic for astrophotography, not just the wonderfully clear skies but zero wind and lov...
20/03/2026

The past few nights have been fantastic for astrophotography, not just the wonderfully clear skies but zero wind and lovely temperatures, it’s been a dream.

Started off on Wednesday night with a bit of a failure - I tried to use the Tamron 150-600mm to get a shot of the Horsehead nebula but sadly the 600mm focal length and physical length of the bazooka meant tracking didn’t work, in spite of my best efforts - not all lost though as I learnt a lesson!

Last night was much more successful - started off with 1.5hrs shooting the California nebula - shot at 120mm I managed to frame it to include Pleiades (first picture), and a close up of the California nebula itself (second picture). Then managed to get an hour shooting the Rosette Nebula! 🎉

California- 82x 60s, iso-800, f/4, 120mm
Rosette - 40x 90s, iso-800, f/4, 200mm

Another potential chance tonight, with bonus Aurora possibility! 🎉

One from a few weeks ago in London, tricky one to take without people able to use a tripod, managed a slightly steady 5m...
15/03/2026

One from a few weeks ago in London, tricky one to take without people able to use a tripod, managed a slightly steady 5min exposure with the camera balanced on the edge though 😅

Just finished watching the first episode of the new itv series “Gone” which featured a few shots of the iconic Clifton S...
09/03/2026

Just finished watching the first episode of the new itv series “Gone” which featured a few shots of the iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge so felt inspired to share a couple of my own favourites from the years ☺️

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