EMPS: In the Dark

For Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #38: Night Shots!, I went outside last night, front yard and back, looking for something interesting to photograph. Normally I would have had the park or the drive home from the park to work with, but it started raining just before I intended to take the dogs over, so we didn't go.

But the front yard didn't have much to offer. I was hoping to catch raindrops lit by the camera's flash, but the rain was gone and the puddles nearly dry. The raindrops on the car had turned to raindrop-shaped splotches of mud.

I took a flashlight outside with me, hoping to get an interesting effect using that for illumination. But it wasn't a halogen bulb, and the camera barely registered its existence.

Eventually I took a few flash photos, which were boring...

...and then went for a flashlight shot or three with the camera set for aperture priority. That might have worked, had I been photographing stationary objects, but I photographed the dogs, who were wandering around, eating grass and checking out the flower bed as usual. Still, I like this one of Cayenne by the fence.

Indoors was a bit easier. This lamp is in the front window.

Since you ask, Carly, night photography mostly drives me crazy. If I used a tripod and really learned my camera settings, I might get a decent result without a serious SLR camera; but as it is my results are more misses than hits. Either I need to work harder at it, or accept that the vast majority of my night shots will be duds.

Occasionally, though, I like what I get, even if it isn't technically very good. Here is a shot I did at dusk two weeks ago, lightened and adjusted. The idea was to bring out the pattern of shadows from the tree above the bench. I think it came out pretty well.

Karen