📸 Shoot & Tell: "Irish Intoxication"
- Miley Jade
- Sep 17
- 3 min read
When the Galaxy Photo-bombs a Tree
Ireland has castles, cliffs, Guinness, and apparently, trees that look like they’re auditioning for a Tim Burton film. Add a sky full of stars, a galaxy flexing its muscles, and a long exposure, and suddenly you’re that person who won’t shut up about aperture sizes at the pub.
The Setup: You, a Tripod, and Judgy Sheep
First things first: shooting star trails or galaxies in Ireland means finding a spot dark enough that your camera doesn’t think it’s in downtown Dublin (which is most of Ireland!). Cue the countryside, where the loudest thing you’ll hear is your own teeth chattering while sheep silently judge your life choices.
Long Exposure Magic
Long exposure is the photographic equivalent of saying, “Hold my beer, I got this.” It’s leaving your shutter open just long enough for light to build up and for the stars to go from twinkles to streaks.
Settings Breakdown (a.k.a. How to Pretend You’re a Pro):
Shutter Speed: 20–25 seconds if you want the stars sharp, hours if you’re going for the “Earth is spinning, and I have proof” look.
Aperture: f/2.8 or wider, because galaxies don’t exactly light themselves up for you.
ISO: 1600–3200. Just enough to see the Milky Way, not enough to make your photo look like it was shot on a security camera.
Shutter Speed: For trails, think 30 seconds × a few hundred frames, stacked later in software. Or just one masochistic 2-hour exposure if you like living dangerously.
Aperture: f/2.8 or as wide as your lens will let you go — because light pollution is real, and Ireland’s sheep don’t carry flashlights.
ISO: 800–3200. High enough to see stars, low enough to not look like you shot the galaxy with a potato.
Star trails are what happen when you leave your shutter open long enough to watch the stars streak across the sky like cosmic spaghetti. The North Star (Polaris) is the diva of this show — everything spins around it while you sit there wondering if your camera battery will outlast your toes.
Pro tip: instead of one long exposure, stack a few hundred 30-second shots in software like StarStaX. That way, if you accidentally get car headlights, a plane, or a UFO in one frame, you don’t ruin the whole night.
The Galaxy: Ireland’s Surprise Guest
The Milky Way shows up best on moonless nights when the sky is darker than your sense of humor. To freeze it, use the 500 Rule: divide 500 by your lens’ focal length, and that’s the longest shutter speed you can use before stars start to trail. Example: 500 ÷ 20mm = 25 seconds. After that, congratulations, you’ve got streaks.
Editing: Where You Go Too Far
This is the part where you drag your RAW files into Lightroom, boost contrast until the galaxy looks like it’s about to headline Coachella, then denoise until the tree looks like it’s made of wax. Just remember: less is more. Unless you’re trying to impress your aunt on Facebook — then go full neon unicorn vibes.
The Payoff
The final shot? A tree silhouetted like a gothic movie prop, a sky bursting with stars, and colors so surreal you swear Ireland slipped something into your pint. You walk away with proof that the universe is both vast and slightly ridiculous — and that you’re the kind of person who thinks freezing in a field for three hours is “fun.”
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👉 Moral of the story: Ireland doesn’t need castles or cliffs to make magic. All it takes is a tree, a tripod, and a galaxy photobombing your night.
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