Night Photography....

Astrophotography is one of the first forms of photography that really captivated me. I used to go out after dark and go to an empty park or the back of my parent's property and just capture the stars and heavens.

As time has gone by and living in the city I may capture a photo of the moon here and there but if I want to capture something special of the night sky its usually while I am camping somewhere with very little light pollution. There is something about capturing the night sky that is extremely serene and relaxing. Its just you, your camera, and your thoughts. I have done a couple time lapse videos of the night sky and also used those photos from the time lapse to create a star trail photo.

Capturing the moon presents a new challenge. Its a challenge because setting up the shot is exactly the opposite of what one would think to capture the moon. You would think it would be like trying to capture the night sky with a longer exposure. It turns out its like capturing a photo in the daylight. The moon is pretty much a giant reflection of the sun and when your photographing all that light bouncing off the moon its just like capturing a photo during the day.

Night street scene photography is always fun. I love turning the aperture down to somewhere between f16 and f22 to make every street light get a starburst effect then drag out shutter speed as long as I need to capture right exposure. As long as the scene does not have a lot of motion it produces a great photo. If there is a lot of motion in the scene the results will vary based on what type of motion there is. If there are lights like head lights and taillights in the scene they will create streaks that usually add character to the photo