LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA (Part 2) Palm Tree Night Trails
On my way back to the hostel when the sun went down I decided to some impromptu long exposure/slow shutter light trail night photography (thats a mouthful). I chose an area that had a row of palm trees just below Angels point. I didn't have a tripod with me at the time so I had to 'make do' with a nearby rock. I must admit it was pretty fun trying to get a relatively straight shot of the road and the palm trees because it was so dark at the time. I ran into a few issues because as I looked through the viewfinder I couldn't actually see the scene in front of me and the 'live view' mode on my camera couldn't make out any detail either. Consequently, what I decided to do was kind of a 'trial and error' shoot where I took an image and slowly began to correct issues that I saw whenever I reviewed the images on the back of my camera. So after each 30second exposure I began to correct the focus (which was really out at the beginning - see 1st image below), then the framing (by balancing lens caps and loose change under my camera) and finally the overall scene white balance & exposure (which was way under in the beginning and better by the end). Below I've posted the images that I took that show this trial end error process of me trying to make things work.
The final image (at the top) which I think is the best of what I managed to capture was taken at 17mm, f/11, ISO 2000 for exactly 30 seconds. I enjoyed doing this because it was a little challenging (especially without a tripod!) but also quite rewarding.
Stay tuned for some more night photography at Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, but for now take care and have a great week!
