Trying to capture the stars!

I took the opportunity when in the Alps last week to try something new. Something I had always wanted to try my hand at! Night Sky Photography. 

We don't exactly have the best conditions for it here in Southern California, but when we were on vacation up in the Alps, well, the conditions couldn't have been better. 

So I took a stab at capturing some night sky images. I'd studied up on some tutorials and tried to absorb as much knowledge as I could, but nothing quite betas trying it for yourself. This was great practice, and I was pretty happy with a couple of the results given it was my first time attempting this type of photography. 

I do kind of wish that the Milky Way had been behind the mountain, but that was not to be on that night. On the plus side, at least we got a clear night. The other nights we were there were very cloudy. 

So it was good practice, and also nice to find out that I could indeed use my new 'compact' tripod stand in (since we were travelling to Europe taking an actual Tripod wasn't really practical). I had picked up one of the larger Platypods and it worked great.