San Francisco – Pt.1 : Night Shooting

 Deserves a quiet night…

There are few things more spectacular than the golden gate bridge at night and I was extremely keen to use the excuse of being out in SF to have a first stab at night photography.  In hindsight, it might have been sensible to have a go somewhere a little more boring first, get used to the concept. Nah, jump right in the deep end and see what happens. I do that a lot.

Rain, Rain, Go away

In-Door shooting:

Spring has sprung in the UK, which means my new hobby has been somewhat put on hold. It has been decided, I am not yet keen enough to brave all this crappy weather. The good news (for me) at least is, tomorrow I will be on a plane heading to mean old 'frisco,  spending as much time as possible taking lots and lots of pics that stink!

The weekend was rather limited to studies of a more theoretical nature.  That is not to say that nothing was achieved. I actually used the time trying to get to grips with Adobe Lightroom.

Friday night is all about silliness and entertainment, last weekend was no exception. After much drinking and merriment we were back at my flat with friends whose patience are much appreciated. In-between shots of Polish vodka, they allowed me to snap away at them. The results were largely terrible, the drunker we got, the more I played with settings on the camera. Every button was played with, from fully auto (flash on) to fully manual. The thumb across lens was a moment one hopes to forget quickly.

First weekend

Auto off

So, what did I learn this weekend? Quite a lot actually, I am still processing a lot of it, but I did shoot my first pics that stink, with the camera in Manual mode; that was rather pleasing. Kind of like the first time you take the stabilisers off your bike and your dad shoves you down the road towards the canal.

Key learning's from the weekend coming up then: