The alarm rang beside his bed at quarter past four on Wednesday morning and Richard Tatti, 10,341 miles away in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, got dressed and tumbled into his office to make this presentation to over 40 members of Norwich and District Photographic Society at 7:30pm on Tuesady here in the UK.

And what a great presentation it was, to begin with he showed us a range of night photographs which included the Milky Way, several trees, both dead and alive, pictures from the Grampians National Park. Richard confessed his love of photographing trees after dark. There were perfect shots of the Milky Way core, caves in the mountains and all sorts of abandoned machinery making beautiful, carefully lit images. Panoramas of the night sky, time lapse and Star Tracker all were areas of Richard's expertise.

After the break he offered heaps of very practical guidance - scout locations in daylight, mark locations on GPS to find them after dark, learn the manual modes so you can set up the camera in the dark, double check focussing, think creatively and many more.

Manual focus adjustment is all important, finding infinity, and double checking it! White balance, he changed this setting depending on the scene, using 3,450 to 5,000k. But the basic requirements for night photography were a dark sky(!), camera, Tripod and light. Some of the things that got in the way could be fear of the dark, can't find locations, inadequate equipment and lack of confidence.

Richard concluded with notes on panoramas and photo stacking.

Our thanks for an inspiring evening packed full of tips and advice all delivered in a friendly and accessible way. Now I'll get out my Canon 6D Mark II, my 50mm lens and I can expose for 6 seconds before stars begin trailing because the camera is full frame, and I'm all set for a great night shoot…!

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