A learning experience

Woke up at 4 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep...I just laid around waiting for M's alarm to go off at 5:30 and then I got up and made us egg sandwiches. It's warm and windy and rainy outside. I have all the windows open (just a little, so the wind doesn't blow the rain in). Not bad for January.

Last night I thought I'd give some night shots a try with my new camera. I drove over to Winton Lake and set up my tripod. Here are a few:
I took this one while standing on a walking-path bridge that goes over the lake. I like the balance of orange and blue. I exposed the shot for three seconds at f/4.5, at 200 ISO. You can see the rest of the settings here if you're interested. I was taking a lot of shots and didn't bother to use the eyepiece cover. It isn't a big deal in this shot, but in later shots I can definitely tell, like this one:
See those vertical lines right in the middle that kind of go over where the path is? They're light haze from the reflections...I also learned that it's a good idea to take off the UV filter when shooting lights reflecting in water like this at night. If you look at the big version, you can see the kind of double-halos around the lights.

Here's one I ran through PhotoShop:
I've discovered that the best way to focus in low-light situations is to move the camera so that it focuses on something bright, like one of the lights, and either put on the AF lock or switch it to manual focus so that it doesn't try to refocus when you hit the shutter. I'm also remote-less at this point so I'm using the timer for all my shots. I'm reading a book about night and low-light photography and apparently I should be using the lens hood at night too--I assumed it was only for sunlit conditions, but according to this book it does wonders for all your shots, not just sunlit ones.

It's great to have this going on. This photography thing. I feel like I've found the right art medium, after all those fumbling attempts at writing and drawing and making music. This one is it. This is the one I love best. Every morning when I wake up, I think, what will I take pictures of today?

Which is neat.