The stars twinkled gently overhead and the the Milky Way arched silently, calmly across the sky. About 500 meters away behind the treeline a shed full of cows had decided that the peace and quiet could last no longer. I grew up on a farm so I am completely used to the ruckus coming from cowsheds, but there was something about the noise that night, in contrast to the stillness and calm of the night sky, that made the experience much more unique.

The tree was lit using two remote flash units, one to the right of the scene to light the tree and another off to the left to provide some very subtle highlights and fill in some of the shadows cast by the first. I used a few sweeps of a torch beam to provide very minimal light on the treeline to the back of the frame. The spill from this flashlight caused the horizontal line visible towards the botttom of the frame.