City Lights

The first technique I wanted to get right was to capture the city lights. The kids went on holiday and I was allowed to house-sit their flat. Their flat is on the Oriental Parade in Wellington, with the most amazing view over the city - the perfect place for city lights.

Camera:  Olympus e-500 with the 70-300mm lens

I googled and found this information (I am disappointed to say I cannot remember the URL of the site, and can therefore not acknowledge the photographer who shared this on the Internet), but it is excellent:

                                                                                          ISO100                              ISO400

• Neon lights filling frame                                        1/8 sec; f8                          1/15 sec; f11
• Brightly lit theatre district with neon lights           1/4 sec; f8                          1/8 sec; f11
• Bright street scenes                                                1/2 sec; f8                          1/4 sec; f11
• Floodlit buildings and monuments                        2 sec; f5.6                          1/2 sec; f5.6
• Distant skyline of offices, streets, etc                    4 sec; f2.8                          4 sec; f5.6

I set the camera up quite early, on the tripod and took the first test shot at f/8; 2 sec

 Second shot at f/4; 1/125

Shot a lovely sunset with f/4.5 and 1/125

And then it became darker and the lights turned on!

F/3.6; 4 sec

f/8; 2 sec

f/5.6; 4 sec

f/5.6; 4 sec

A new journey!

I am still taking photos every day, or almost every day. It is hard to pick one photo to post for a day, because there are days where they are all bad.........and other days I cannot choose between the good ones. I also realised that I am not growing with my photography, mostly because I am trying to learn everything as soon as possible, and therefore not learning at all.

The better way to develop my skills and master new techniques would be to slow down. I now have a list of techniques I want to work on and develop. This list will change and grow, so will I!

I am going to choose a technique on my list, read up and do the research and then go out and shoot. So far I have done this with night-lights, fireworks and parades. And truthfully, I have made progress already and am actually very proud of the photos.