My friends and I went camping last weekend. I brought my dlsr up and took a number of photos during the day hiking and at night around the fire. The shot below is my favorite. The shutter was open for about 10 seconds capturing the stars and the night sky and illuminating the trees to a bright white coming from a small lantern and the campfire.
Anyone else ever take long exposure photography? I have a number of other cool ones of Chicago and New York streets. Also have a set from driving at night taking pictures of the traffic signs as they go by.
For a year in college I studied photojournalism, which is to say I took two photography classes and a class on media. It wasn't too long before I figured out that most of the other students were far more capable and talented with their photography. Still, I learned a lot and I loved the experience. I dabbled with some long exposure work, like you in the streets and also a bit in nature. It's fun to hold the stop open while driving in pointing your camera out the window towards some lights. There's been a lot of interesting work done incorporating drawing and sculpture. Picasso did a bit of it.
Also, I should mention that I enjoyed your photo and would be interested to see the work you did in the city.
I had a lot of fun with a 35mm film camera. With a sturdy tripod you could let it sit and soak up light for whole minutes, and end up with a dramatic sky that looked completely dark to the eye. Eventually that camera became unreliable and I made the switch to digital. In my experience the digital sensor collects noise during long exposures of a black sky, so I ended up getting a lot of "stars" that weren't really there. (Yours is a nice shot, though!) I had better luck with shorter timed exposures of a few seconds -- for these a remote shutter release was very helpful. I still haven't managed to get a decent shot of the moon with my equipment despite many efforts.
Have you made a complete switch to digital? I recently switched to a film camera after using a digital camera more or less since the beginning of my photography adventure (6 years). Digital to me still has it benefits. I don't have to worry about running out of film rolls, which happens frequently :)
• I estimated an exposure to cost 25¢ with film cost and processing, which was far from negligible back then, compared to practically free storage with digital. Now you don't have to have a professional budget to use the technique of taking lots of photos and picking the best. • Immediate review, to know that you at least got something. • Thousands of images on one unit of storage media instead of 24. • Film is delicate and easily ruined; SD cards are practically indestructible. • Grandma gets her copy in minutes instead of days. On two trips I shot a roll of film that didn't turn out and will always regret not capturing those images. In San Francisco, I neglected to load a roll of film at all, and didn't realize it until I had shot over 30 times without running out of film. In Buenos Aires, my camera was shooting blanks and I had no idea until I came home.Have you made a complete switch to digital?
Yes, I haven't bought a roll of film in ten years. I can barely muster nostalgia for taking chemical pictures, digital wins in every way:
I do quite a bit of photography and love long exposures. Last ones I did that I liked came from the 4th of July when I was lighting some shitty fireworks off in my driveway. But with a tripod and a shutter button I got some pretty cool pics (I think). And one from Christmas last year. I like long exposure of lights like this, plus one of my cats is sleeping in it.
Ha. I like the Cat perched there in the background. Looking displeased like all cats always do.