Light pollution and clouds can still be used to good affect

Astrophotography doesn't always have to be in the darkest places far away from civilization. Sometimes you can take great photos from your own backyard!

I would normally always look for dark places to photograph the night sky, especially the milky way. However, sometimes you can even take advantage of light pollution and cloudy skies. In my own backyard there are some tall alamo trees that really stand out which I always wanted to photograph against the backdrop of the milky way, but recently there has been some building work on the neighbouring house using huge floodlights to work at night.

At first I was really annoyed about it but then decided to try and use the light to my advantage as it was lighting up the foreground. It was also a cloudy night which I thought might add some depth to the shot. I started shooting at blue hour until the milky way started to rise and took a timelapse at the same time. This was the result with the milky way, clouds and the alamo trees backlighted all combing quite nicely.