It was a wet, restless start to 2026 across the UK, so when a decent clear window appeared on the south coast, the day after Storm Goretti had torn through the south west, I wasn’t going to waste it. My friend Jeroen, from Starscaper, was over visiting, and Dorset seemed like the obvious call: a stretch of coast carved from limestone laid down 150 million years ago, folded and tilted by tectonic forces, then patiently worn by the sea into some of England’s most recognisable shapes. Durdle Door itself, that great natural arch punched clean through the rock some 10,000 years ago, is about as iconic as UK landscape photography gets.

We based ourselves in Lulworth Cove and hiked the steep clifftop path over to Durdle Door, arriving to a sea still furious from the storm the night before, churning hard enough that the beach itself felt like the wrong place to be after dark. So we stayed up top, shooting from the clifftops looking out over the arch and the water, under skies that had cleared to a properly dark, star filled black. It turned into one of those relaxed, easy nights, no drama, no fighting the conditions, just good company and a beautiful sky doing exactly what we’d hoped for.

We finished early in the end, and made our way back down to Lulworth Cove to sit by the water with a bottle of whisky, marking Jeroen’s 100th video. Good conversation, a job well done, and the sea still settling after the storm. Some of the best nights under the stars aren’t about the images at all.