The Ghost of St. Lawrence Hall

Posted on December 15, 2009 by The Lazy Photographer

The Ghost of St. Lawrence Hall! Okay, not so much. These soldiers were standing guard and very motionless, as you can tell from my photo, since it was a long shutter speed. The woman entering the establishment, on the other hand, was in motion, which shows up as a ghostly blur in the photo. The trials and tribulations of night photography, I suppose. 🙂

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6 Responses to The Ghost of St. Lawrence Hall

  1. y says:
    December 16, 2009 at 11:03 pm

    how do you take such great night shots? do you carry a tripod with you? thank you for these!

    • davecandoit says:
      December 17, 2009 at 7:19 am

      Oh you know how it is, just extraordinarily talented it all… 🙂

      Kidding. Yeah, if I go out at night I bring along the tripod. I also experiment with shutter speed and exposure. Typically I lock exposure to ISO 80 and adjust shutter speed to until I get enough natural light to illuminate the scene. I never use flash.

      • y says:
        December 17, 2009 at 3:27 pm

        yes, i am not a flash person, either. i actually go to ISO 3200. guess i’ll have to experiment on lower ISO and buy a tripod! okay, do you and, if so, how do you manage to carry around your tripod on a regular basis? (smile)

  2. thegirlfromtheghetto says:
    December 17, 2009 at 12:08 am

    Sweet shot. I’m an amature photographer myself, but never play around with shutter speeds as much as I should. You inspire me to try!

    • davecandoit says:
      December 17, 2009 at 7:21 am

      It’s definitely worth the effort if you like night photography. The thing is, try to keep the ISO setting below 400 if you have a cheap camera like mine. Use long shutter times. Thanks for popping by.

  3. davecandoit says:
    December 17, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    Hi Yi-Ching,

    I mostly don’t carry around my tripod. I only take it out when I know for sure I’ll need it, like for an evening dedicated to photography. It knocks down to about 20″ tall, so it’s not too much trouble. But, and it’s a big but, I lose out on the spontaneity one gets by just having a camera on them when out and about at night. I don’t even bother bringing my camera out after dark, because I hate dragging around a tripod unless I know for sure I’ll need it. When I upgrade to a DSLR an option will open up that I presently don’t have, which is shooting hand-held at higher ISO in order to keep the shutter speed fast enough to avoid blurred images due to camera shake. My point & shoot goes up to ISO 400 (if I recall) but at that number the noise ruins the shot. Even with a fancy DSLR I will try to bring a tripod along for dedicated night outings. As for tripods, there are some nice ones on the market that collapse really small and are light weight.

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