Night Photography Assignment 3: City Lights (abstract)

So I have been battling a really rotten cold this week. I haven't been up to taking many photos. On Sunday, I realized I hadn't taken any additional photos than the daily 365 shots I always do. I had to force myself to go out Sunday night to go and capture some night photos. I should have worked on the weekly Gizmodo shooting challenge too, but I felt that the night photography was more important. Last week at our class, I asked for some assignment ideas. The themes I got were interesting but nothing struck a chord with me. When I left my house on Sunday night, I still wasn't sure what I was going to shoot. I went down the street and tried some long traffic exposures (which I may post later) but felt I wasn't getting anywhere. I decided to head to my parent's house where they have a nice city lights view. I shot some long exposures of the LA basin that were rather boring. I decided to switch to my zoom lens and try some "zoom exposures:" During a long exposure, I zoom in and out on the lens creating an interesting effect. These photos were better so I decided to go with "city lights" for the assignment. I even tried a new technique in which I start the shot vertically, zoom in and out, then turn the camera horizontally, and zoom again. Although I like the wiggly light lines caused by my unsteady hand, I would love to be able to zoom so smoothly that lines are straighter. Oh well, perhaps I can find some kind of tutorial on how to build a "smooth zoomer." Here are my better shots this week:

45 second exposure, f/22, 300mm-75mm, ISO 100
31 second exposure, f/22, 75mm-300mm, ISO 100
24 second exposure, f/22, 300mm-75mm, ISO 100

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre
1974
★★★✰✰
So I had a hard time reading this book.  I enjoyed the story, especially the third part of the book, but had a difficult time following along.  A slew of characters, spy lingo, and a multitude of flashback scenes made it hard for me to know exactly what was happening.  That being said, its a good book and definitely exciting to read.

Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10k Photo

So I look pretty goofy in this photo.  My hat isn't on straight!  Oh well, at least I'm in a photo...

Night Photography: Class 3

So I was happy to get out to this class. I enjoy shooting the ocean and was looking forward to doing it at night. Our first task of the night was to use our (gasp) flash! Ugh; I know. But let me explain. Patrick asked us, "How do you capture a subject up close while keeping the background in view and interesting at night?" For instance, photographing a person up close while shooting a sunset behind. Without the flash, the person will be a black silhouette. With a flash, the background is lost in darkness. Quite the conundrum. By using the right lens, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, you can create this photo. My shots with my 50mm prime lens worked fine, giving the background of the beach lights a nice "bokeh" effect. We then wandered around the pier, taking in the sights. The view from the pier looking back toward Palos Verdes and South Redondo was fantastic. I wanted to get a nice glassy ocean reflecting the lights on the beach so I shot a 30 second exposure and was pleasantly surprised with the "star-bursts" of light. Moving on, the pier was bustling with people: fishermen at the railing, diners eating at the multitude of restaurants and walkers strolling around. Plenty of interesting subjects. I wanted to ask some of the people if I could photograph them but lost my nerve. I did capture some good scenes with long exposures, blurring out defining characteristics of the people on the pier. The area that I was shooting was lit with a horrible green fluorescent light which made my color shots look horrible. I switched over to black and white and was pleased with the results. I then shifted my attention to shooting the pier itself, attempting to capture the light on the water, coming under the pier, through the pylons. I tried to shoot the action of the waves breaking on the beach but even with the aperture at f/1.8, I couldn't get enough light at a fast enough shutter speed to get any good photos. I settled for some multicolored reflections on the water. I felt this was a very good class. Good shots and I learned something new! Below are my better shots, a few more this time...
1/25 second exposure, f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 400
30 second exposure, f/22, 50mm, ISO 100
10 second exposure, f/16, 50mm, ISO 200
1 second exposure, f/5, 42mm, ISO 200
6 second exposure f/10, 29mm, ISO 200
4 second exposure, f/9, 50mm, ISO 100
1/40 second exposure, f/1.8, 50mm, ISO 1600

Competition Corner: Letters Feature

So I started taking part in a photo competition group on flickr: Competition Corner. This month's assignment was "Letters" and my photo was chosen as a featured runner-up. It's an honor to be included with these other photos. Please check out the winning and other runner up photos.

Redondo Beach Super Bowl 10K Results

So I am not sure why the time highlighted is the gun time rather than the sensor time but I am pleased with my result.  I wanted to finish in under an hour and 55:45 is a good time for me.  I am especially pleased where I finished: 1230 out of 3462 (almost top 35% overall) and 911 out of 1850 (top 50% of men).

Night Photography Assignment 2: The Moon

So I want to keep up with my weekly assignments for my night photography course. This week I was having difficulty coming up with a theme. I thought I would try light painting as my kids opened up a bunch of glo-sticks on Friday night but my shots weren't too exciting. Our class instructor mentioned the moon in an email on Saturday. I went ahead and changed subjects and these are my better shots. Some notes on these photos: I spent a lot of time on the tree photo. I attempted to back light the tree by using a flash (my little elph camera worked fine) but found that it didn't create too much of an effect. I am surprisingly pleased with the moon ring shot. I wasn't too sure how the moon halo would come out in the photo but along with the light burst from the moon, it works as a good photo. As for the moon photo, this proved to be quite difficult. I wanted to get as much of the shadows and texture of the moon without losing too much of the brightness. After adjusting aperture and exposure many, many times, this made the cut, although I still think it could have been brighter.

26 second exposure, f/7.1, 23mm, ISO 400
51 second exposure, f/13, 21mm, ISO 200
1/50 second exposure, f/18, 280mm, ISO 200