An amateur photographer from High Wycombe has captured the beauty of the night sky with a set of breathtaking new photographs.  

Benjamin Gibbs started capturing images of the stars over High Wycombe and the surrounding area just before Christmas and has built up a vast collection of stunning shots.

The 26-year-old amateur photographer works for TMS Market Research during the day and heads out with his Canon 100D camera in the evening as a hobby.

Residents might recognise some famous local landmarks in the photographs, including the Golden Ball and Hughenden Manor.  

Benjamin said: “This is just a hobby for me and I'm only just getting started really. I'm still a beginner so I don’t know all there is to know about photography, but I really enjoy doing it and I'm thinking about getting more into it.”

Benjamin has become keen on astrophotography in particular after becoming interested in astronomy and decided to learn more about it.

“I got really interested in astronomy and I started reading books about it, especially ones by Carl Sagan and then I just started photographing the night sky just before Christmas.”

The breathtaking pictures include shots of the Pleiades star cluster over Hughenden Park, the constellation of Orion over Downley and the iconic Golden Ball under a blanket of stars.  

Ben said: “I just really enjoy it. Being able to capture that many stars in one image is amazing and to be able to share my pictures is really nice.

“With all the crime going on in the area at the moment it’s definitely good to be able to show this side of High Wycombe.”

Despite already capturing some striking images of the night’s sky, Ben thinks his best shots are still to come.

“I'm really looking forward to the summer when the Milky Way will be over the Northern Hemisphere. That’s when all the best pictures will come out and it will become very interesting.”  

Ben says capturing the perfect image is easier than you might think.

For the Orion constellation overlooking Downley, he left the shutter open for 8.4 seconds with an ISO of 1600 and to capture the stars over the Golden Ball, Benjamin took the photo at around 8.30pm with a 24 second exposure at an ISO of 800.

“The stars look good behind any object, like a building or a tree, so it doesn’t take long to get a good shot.

“You need a clear night with no clouds and preferably no moon. Light pollution is the biggest problem when photographing the night sky.”