June 28, 2009

8 seconds away


June 2009, Patissia, Athens

8 seconds exposure: Look, ma, no tripod!
OK, this is not technically a good shot, but I like it and it's interesting in several ways.

1) With my moderately steady hand and holding my breath for eight freaking seconds, I get this. "This" being a NOT complete fuck up, which is a big deal, as far as I'm concerned. I'm happy. Yet another reason to like a lightweight camera.

2) Barring that pathetic excuse of a moon (it's blurry here, but actually it was a very thin slice), this cloudy night sky was pitch black. And look at it now.

3) Weird, weird colours. I had no idea what to expect when I took the shot, but now I can rationalise it. The moon itself offered little light, at least directly. The main light sources here are the clouds above (yellowish-red, carrying rain) and the yellow street lamps below. Both quite warm. The result reminds me of expired film or underexposed Kodachrome (R.I.P., by the way) or a combination thereof. All in all, weird enough to be interesting.

4) Pictures like this just compel you to fool around endlessly, don't they? Now I want to play with all the settings and perhaps colour temperature - though this is a strictly digital thing and I won't have a clue what the fuck I'm doing. Which is great.

5) And I didn't try black & white at all. Damn.

6) A tripod would be tremendously useful here, and at the same time defeat the entire purpose of getting a camera which is small and easy to carry around etc. I'll go restrain myself now...