So I...: Night Photography Class 4: Redondo Beach Boardwalk

So I can't believe how windy it was! The wind nearly blew my camera and tripod over a few times during our class at the Redondo Boardwalk and Fun Factory. High winds don't help with crisp photos. Apparently, most of the business are closed on Monday which made for a less-than-vibrant shooting experience. We met at the Fun Factory which, to be honest, isn't that fun. It is a relic of an arcade that is filled mostly with ticket style games in which you roll a quarter down a slot and hope the moving arm pushes some quarters off the edge. Mostly empty, I tried to find some interesting shots in the arcade. It was much brighter than I was expecting so in order to get some long exposures, I had to shoot at a higher f-stop. My photos are a little boring but they are below. We then moved out onto the boardwalk and into the marina. Some flags flapping madly in the wind caught my eye and was curious as to how they would look photographed. When I was taking the photo, I was imagining in my mind that the flags would appear as stiff rectangles. They are still blurred with motion. I wonder if the exposure was shorter, I could have got what I was looking for? I spent the rest of the evening wandering around, taking shots of the boats on the water and of the boarded up businesses. The long exposures of the water came out well - almost looking like solid ice. I got separated from the class and ended up packing up a little early when I couldn't find them again. Of course, when I got home, eager to go through all my shots, iPhoto was not cooperating and I had to wait until the next day. When I was starting to crop and straighten the photos, I ended up cropping many at the 16x9 setting. I never crop at this size but the photos seemed to warrant a more wide screen, panoramic shot. I'm not sure I will use this format again but the photos seemed to fit better. All in all, the boardwalk was an interesting place to shoot, although it may be much more exciting on a night less windy and in which there are more people and more activity. I'm most pleased with the last shot. The light streaks and blur from the boats came out quite nice. My better shots are below: