When you say "should fall beyond infinity" what exactly are you talking about? The infinity mark on the lens's focus ring? Not all lenses are built the same way, so sometimes the infinity mark is not precise, so you'll need to finesse the focus a little bit to get the result you're looking for.

Great work! Photo looks great now. Amazing how much our camera 'sees' in the dark.

The MW looks really good.

Wait until you get introduced to light painting and light writing!

Awesome! Next time, see if you can boost your ISO a little more. Really, you can go pretty high these days, especially with the amount of noise reduction that can be done in post. Also, if you can open your lens up really wide, you'll get great results, even at 18 seconds. Try it around f2.8, I bet you can get some really cool photos that wide.

You could even play around in the backyard, you don't need to travel far to testing your camera's ability.

The 500 Rule is standard, but because camera and lens technology keeps advancing, even that can fail, hence my move to the 400 rule. I recently read an article where the author uses 300 as his rule for night photography! Whatever works for you, that is the best bet. Every time. :-)

I don't recall if it is in the link I posted, and I'm too lazy to look now, but the "dehaze" feature in LR or PS (I can't remember which) is great when you get the Milky Way in your shot. Play around with that feature on your original photo, see what it does.

Glad to know we are gaining more night photography enthusiasts in the world! It's awesome out there at night.

Upon looking closer at the OP's picture, may I ask what your shutter speed was? It appears you had it set for a longer exposure, based on the plane trail in the lower left of your shot. What lens did you use? Use the 400 rule to get the best Milky Way shots (IMO), and you'll be really happy with your results.

Thats actually a pretty great shot of the Milky Way. The only thing you could have done differently to get a better exposure in camera would be to boost your ISO. Depending on your camera, you could easily get upward of 6400 before seeing much noise, if any. However, being that your shot is good, use this as a guide to processing this to really bring out the MW: https://www.nationalparksatnight.com/blog/2019/1/5/the-first-steps-to-processing-milky-way-images-in-lightroom

That site has some great tips for not only shooting stars/Milky Way, but on how to best process them and build your own workflow for night photography. Night photography has quickly become one of my favorite genres to shoot.

I don't get it. Its a beach only for ladies?

-I keed, I keed

If you ever find yourself in Vegas again, check out the Neon Graveyard. Its a ton of the old signs from businesses past in Vegas, and they light them up at night. You can just wander around and see them, its super cool. Of course, the only time I saw it was when I was there for work, and didnt have my camera. The iphone didnt do it justice with blown highlights and such.

Seeing the signs from Austin brings back memories. I miss that city. I do NOT miss the heat, but I do miss that place...

Great shots, thanks for sharing!

Old Town is fantastic for photography, you can get some great "street" shots there. USS Midway is really cool as well. I would also recommend to follow the shoreline from the Midway toward the south. You'll find some great photo ops along the way, and when you get to the Embarcadero Marina, you're sure to see some really cool yachts. You can also frame up the Coronado Bridge from the park that is right there. If you have the time, take one of the tourist boat trips around the bay. You'll see some cool buildings from the boat, and if you have a good zoom lens, there are some great shots to get.

San Diego is a great place, you'll find the time flies when you're there.

Great shot Bob! Congratulations on your award. I really like the contrast of shadow and light, with the curved shadows at the bottom of the photo being my favorite piece of this. In viewing your photo, and reading that you walked by this a few times before capturing it, I wonder how many great photos I've walked past because I couldn't "see" the shot. That is why I love photography: I am challeged and INSPIRED by my fellow photographers.

If I'm out, and the light isn't "right," I'm still going to take photos. Maybe my shots won't be of the subject I set out to capture, but I'll get something. I generally turn my attention to macro subjects if the light is too harsh. I can create shade with my hat or hand, if the mid-day sun is too direct. Often, I'm not far from a wooded area, so I tend to venture that way if the sun is too bright.

Well, I moved from the D3200 to the D750 in January 2017. My main reason was that I am really into landscape photography, and was getting into night photography. I quickly realized on an overnight workshop that to get good photos, I needed longer exposure time. With the D3200, I would get some serious "ghosting" around the edges of the frame on any shot over 4 minutes (these were not all star/sky shots, so I needed the longer exposures). I wanted to do a lot of light painting, but without the ability to have longer exposures, that was quite difficult, so I wanted the full-frame camera to capture all that I could. Outside of that, I never really had an issue with the D3200, but I just felt like I could get more out of a full-frame camera. I really appreciate the ability to shoot in higher ISO with the D750. It has allowed me to get those 4-5 minute exposures and have the ability to light paint from multiple angles in a single exposure. The ONLY thing I miss about the D3200 is how much lighter it is than the D750. I still wouldn't go back, but there are times that I wish my gear didnt weigh so much...

Good luck! I would offer the advice to really think about "why" you want to move up. I don't say that to talk you out of it, but the crop sensors really don't have many drawbacks for most photographers, unless you're in a situation like me, where nighttime exposures became my main focus.

The first camera I ever purchased was one of those Kodak point and shoots, but had the "panorama" setting. When you sent the film off, you'd get back this 4" tall x 16" (or so) photo. It was so cool to get those. I took panoramas of things that made no sense, just so I could see what it looked like when I got the photo back. I still have several rolls of film for it, and I'm pretty sure I still have the photos somewhere too. I do not have the camera anymore, but I don't miss it. I've had several models of digital point and shoots (Sony, Samsung), but the first ILC I purchased was a Nikon D3200 (the red one, like Iron Man). I've since graduated to my current D750, and I absolutely love it.

Great shots! Can you share some of the metadata (shutter speed, aperture, etc)? Also, were you using a tripod?

I keep everything from vacations, the kid, important events. Unless they are a wreck (the camera moved, out of focus, etc). Storage is so cheap, I see no reason to spend time deciding which versions of a photo to keep or toss, regardless of the number of shots of the same subject. I will likely never revisit many of my backed up photos, but I have them just in case. I'd rather spend my time shooting more, and pp my good shots that I'm proud of.

I will buy external hard drives when I see them on a really sale at Amazon or B&H and the like. I have drives still shrink wrapped because I haven't put them in the rotation yet..