If you ever have the chance to visit Marlborough Sounds, take a camera with you. It’s beautiful in any weather, 24/7, 365 days a year!

Marlborough Sounds is located just North of New Zealand’s South Island.  It is easily accessed by boat from Picton.  Picton is a 3-4 hour cruise from Wellington, or you could fly there via Sounds Air in 25 minutes from Wellington.

I wasn’t sure if my larger Manfrotto tripod would make it through as carry-on luggage, so I packed light with a cheap $30 tripod from Dealextreme.  The problem with light tripods is even the smallest amount of shake (from ground movement even through walking!) will manifest in your image.  At these smaller resolutions they look OK, but click on the images to view the camera settings and view the images in high resolution.  These are my first attempts at astrophotography.  What do you think?

• Aperture: ƒ/7.1
• Camera: Canon EOS 6D
• Exposure bias: +2/3EV
• Flash fired: no
• Focal length: 24mm
• ISO: 640
• Shutter speed: 1/40s