Night Moves

It has been awhile since I've posted here, mainly because I haven't had much to post. My photography has been limited to what inspiration I can get while at school. No car shows until the end of March and there isn't much to shoot on campus or off. Especially during the rain we had for the past month. Though this past week has been amazingly clear and while I didn't get out during the day to shoot, I did get out at night. The first sessions was to shoot the massive moon we had this past week that was made even more clear by the lack of clouds in the sky.

The problem was that I didn't have my tripod, so I was stuck using a monopod and a sapling support as a brace to steady my camera and it didn't work well. I also didn't remove my UV filter, which I find out later causes some problems with night shots.


It was bright, very bright. This brightness plus the blur created an effect much like the sun at night.


That bluish dot is what happens when you leave your UV filter on at night. I thought it was just lens flare.

So after that sorry attempt, I decided I need my tripod. Since my dad was already making a trip up to give me something, I asked him to grab my tripod. That night I went out again. It was still clear though the moon was gone from the sky. It was also mighty cold and after less than a half hour outside my hands were numb. I think I'll wait until it warms up a bit before I go out again.


I'm trying to use Aperture priority more in my shooting. I know with night shots Shutter priority makes more sense, but aperture is easier to set. In order to get good shutter speeds, I had to crank up the f-number. Which gave the lights a really cool effect.


The light trails it created for the cars driving by was quite neat. I call this one "The Flash Got in My Shot", because of the red blur.


The sky came out really orange in some shots. Not sure if this was because it sun had only completely set not too long ago, or because of the light pollution of the area.


My aim for this shot was to capture the lighted dorms still under construction way in the back. But the lamp posts ended up being the focus. The star effect really gives it a "fake" feel, I really like it.

I really couldn't get the center on this shot. I couldn't eyeball it very well, so I kept making adjustments and shooting. And I ended up with two shots, same settings but slightly different centers. I thought it would be good for a wiggle stereoscopy, to give a 3D effect. However, the pictures are a bit too different and it doesn't work as well. I may try this again though, the tripod makes it easy.



All my night shots and all future night shots can be found in my Night Photography set on Flickr. I'll post more once I get a good batch going. I'll also post some pictures from the Good Guys car show in a few weeks.