Wow. I can’t believe the entire summer went by without a single post.  It’s been a busy and eventful summer and now that I have some free time, I am going to catch up on my postings.

For those who know me, beach landscapes are my go-to because of the convenience, but summer in Southern California is also the worst time to go to the beach because there are too many crowds.  Given that the weather is essentially “summer” most of the year, and I live here, I don’t feel the need to go down to the coast during the summer months.

For Photography, Summer in the Northern Hemisphere means Milky Way shooting, as the core is most visible during this time.  I’ve attempted trying to capture this Galaxy plenty of times last year with utter failure and came to learn that capturing the Milky Way is as much of a science as it in an art.  A variety of factors go into being able to have the ideal conditions to capture this successfully.

To cover just the basics:

1. The time of the year (Summer in the Northern Hemisphere)
2. The time of the month (New Moon. You can check for this on a moon calendar)
3. Location (Little light pollution.  While correlated, this is not to be confused for a “dark” location)
4. Equipment – Fast wide angle lens

And that is just the basics. Then there is stuff that takes actual skill, such as knowing how to focus, knowing how to edit your photo, and knowing how long to expose without star trails.. This all varies depending on your camera and lens. I won’t go into detail but Pexta Pixle’s  Avoiding Star Trails: “Rule of 500” has a good article on it.

To make a long story short, last year, I wasn’t able to capture the Milky Way at all.  To be completely frank, if someone saw my  old Milky Way photos, they would have to use their imagination, REALLY HARD, to be able to GUESS where the Milky Way was in my photos.  That is why I liked posting my fails on Instagram because the pictures are really small, so if you would point your finger at the photo on the screen, you most likely would hit where the Milky Way was supposed to be.

Here was my first attempt this year where I at least knew what I was doing:

Success! You can actually see what I was trying to do!

I think I was so focused on trying to capture the Milky Way that I did not have much of an interesting foreground, but for the following month, I decided to be a little more creative and have myself in the photo. This is my “selfie” with my friend pressing the trigger for me:

In all, I am proud of myself to be able to go from not being able to capture the Milky Way to be able to get this, but I still have lots to improve on.  Unfortunately, this will have to wait for next Summer, but I’m sure I will find plenty to occupy myself until then! After all, it is now officially Fall, so that means Fall colors!  I have a feeling I may need to do some travel to actually see Fall colors though. Leaves do not change color here, and the weather STILL feels like Summer today, with the temperatures still in the 80s.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for “Fall” to hit soon!