I had to pop into the Palmeraie last night for a bit of work and when I was finished I thought I would have a go at some slightly longer exposures.  

I am not really a tripod fan.  

My style is much more reportage and fast moving, capturing scenes as they happen and moving straight on looking for the next one.  

Tripod work is much slower.  You have to set the thing up for one which takes time, position the camera with all the knobs so the horizon is straight and then steadily take the shot.  It is satisfying when you get a great shot – but it just takes so much longer to get there.

Anyhow,there I was in the Palmeraie and there was no alternative for these sorts of shots other than to use the tripod.

The first shot below was for 53 seconds and the one below that with the star trails at the top of the picture was for 10 minutes.

I was quite pleased for a first attempt.

Let me know what you think.

It was pitch black for the picture below!