A Couple of Night Shots near the Tappen Zee Bridge

[catoctin wx]

My first real attempt at long exposure (betwen 8 and 30 sec) photography.  I think the second one could have been the best, but I my tripod is flimsy and there was a slight breeze.  May have to click to see the entire image.  Let me know what you think! 

 

 

[bowtie`]

I like the colors of the sky in the first image. THe second two are a little focus soft. If the wind is moving the tripod, tieing some weight to the tripod can help. The old ankle weights of the 70's and 80's work great for this. Also you need to try and minimize camera shake from tripping the shutter. If your camera has a shutter delay function, I would use that. Personally I use a remote trigger so I never touch the camera to activate the shutter.

[catoctin wx]

I like the colors of the sky in the first image. THe second two are a little focus soft. If the wind is moving the tripod, tieing some weight to the tripod can help. The old ankle weights of the 70's and 80's work great for this. Also you need to try and minimize camera shake from tripping the shutter. If your camera has a shutter delay function, I would use that. Personally I use a remote trigger so I never touch the camera to activate the shutter.

 

Thanks for the feedback and the advice.  I plan on finding a more sturdy tripod sometime soon. The one I have is laughably flimsy, but it was cheap, so I thought I would give it a try for my first one.  I thought that I had bought the correct remote shutter for my camera, but it turns out that I can't use the IR one.  I still need to go buy one with a cord.  For these pictures I used a 2-sec delay to try to reduce the amount of shake.

 

I'm looking to see if my camera has a shutter delay function, but based on a quick search through the users guide, I would say that it doesn't. 

 

I'm going to be down in Savannah in a few weeks, so I plan on trying to get some good night shots of the picturesque Talmage Memorial Bridge.  Maybe I'll spring for a better tripod and the correct remote trigger before then.