Hey Folks,

Thanks for stopping by. I’m Deepal Ratnayaka, a very passionate Astro Photographer based in Windsor, UK. Observing and Photographing night sky is one of my favourite pass-times. I absolutely love everything about it; right from ‘the thought process’ to planning & capturing all the way up to seeing the final photo printed.

Night brings darkness, something we all know obviously :) ; for me that darkness simplifies what we see in our own planet at the same time draws us to the vastness of the universe above us. I absolutely love ‘picturing’ the planet we live in being part of this massive system - cosmos with millions of billions of suns like ours shining the darkness. This magical experience gets me closer to a subject I’ve been intrigued with my whole life, Astronomy.

From the day I captured my first nightscape till today, I must have gone out 100 s of times. Still, with every outing, there is some thing new to experience, something new to learn. It could be techniques in photography or something in the sky I have not seen before, may be a flash of light. This remarkable experience keeps me going…!

I come from Engineering background and work as an IT Consultant. So my day-to-day work is more project and timeline driven. Targets ..!

Night with Astrophotography however is very different. It allows me to get in to my creative headspace letting my imagination take over.

As I live in a city with fairly heavy light pollution, most of my photography doesn’t take place there. Its not unusual me travelling 3 or 4 hours or longer to reach remote locations far away from cities to get the best conditions. Strange, but I love this long journeys as it allow me to ‘unwind’ from day-to-day matters and think about what I’m going to photograph and even visualize and fantasize what I would potentially see at the back of the camera screen….

Reward for leaving the comfort of home is the chance to spend nights with breath-taking views and surreal experiences.

“By discovering nature, you discover yourself.” —Maxime Lagacé

Well, that’s me folks. Thanks for reading through. I hope you enjoy my photography and the experiences I share. I also sincerely hope they inspire you to go out at night and enjoy the beautiful cosmos we are all part of.

And also, lets all do our ‘bit’ to preserve night skys from light pollution for us and future generations..!!. It starts with a simple act of switching off unwanted lights at our homes :)

Best Regards

Deepal

"Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe." — Maria Mitchell, Astronomer