Last night I finally received the tripod I ordered over the Internet. It is a Bogen 3021-Pro with a Manfrotto 3-axis head. If you would like more information about these, keep an eye out as I will be writing a review about them as soon as I get a little more hands-on time. In the meantime, let me tell you about my first night shot using them. I had been dying to get my new tripod in order to take some of the Christmas shots I had been lining up for weeks. Unfortunately, by the time my tripod arrived, everyone had taken down their Christmas lights, so it looks like I am going to have to wait until next year for those, but oh well, I was fortunate enough to find another very willing subject.

I am not sure if any of you had a chance to watch the Rose Parade this year, which was actually held on January 2, 2006, not the traditional January 1st. If you did, you may have noticed that we here in Southern California were drenched in rain that day. In fact, most of the New Year's weekend was a wet one for us. We also had floods and mudslides that threatened many cities. So, after all of this, we were lucky enough to see very clear skies and sunny, warm days on the 4th and 5th. Lucky for me, these clear skies also translated into clear nights with spectacular views of the moon and stars (which we really do not get to see much of here in the Los Angeles area).

So, I considered myself lucky and began setting everything up for my first attempt at a shot of the moon. Personally, I think it came out pretty good, if I do say so myself. I was pleasantly surprised at the detail in the picture. Sure, it is clear that I still need some practice adjusting the exposure, which the exposure assistance on the camera fails to help with in shots like this of the moon, but over all, I was extremely happy with the results. Click here if you would like to see a larger view of this picture.