Over exposed?

Tags

brake lights, DSLR, eastbourne, landscape, long exposure., night, Nikon D3100, photography, winter, zero temperatures

I took my first venture into night photography tonight, exposed on a dark, windy, freezing hillside.

It wasn’t the most glorious exercise. For starters I dropped my new DSLR on the road as I took it out of the car and cracked the case, which was an event that forced a pressured decision (and an outburst of bad language). Should I get back in the car and sulk over the damage, or get on with taking some shots in the sub-zero temperatures and winds on the hills above Eastbourne.

I decided to freeze for my art.

May I add at this point, that if you’ve never used a tripod with a detachable plate before, trying to do so in the dark when you can’t feel the tips of your fingers is probably not the best time to start!

Anyway, I got a couple of shots off in the pitch black and to my surprise the biggest issue was too much light! That and trying to keep the tripod still in between gusts of wind. I also need to read the manual and work out how to cancel the rear screen display, so that I’m not intermittently blinded when I’ve got my eye to the view-finder right next to it while working in the dark.

The results were educational, which is cool. At least I’m learning something right? The best shot was a long exposure of a passing car. What I was aiming to shoot, were the lights of the town in the distance, but the passing car was much more interesting as it turned out.

Here they are:

Passing car.

Eastbourne at night…. hmmm. Need more experience, but not too embarassing considering the arctic conditions, for a first go.

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