St. Petersburg Florida waterfront at Twilight, this image available for fine art print & commercial license - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 10 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseThe waterfront of St. Petersburg, Florida is home to the third largest continuous waterfront park in North America (behind Vancouver and Chicago).  This is why at the very edge where the city meets Tampa Bay as viewed from the water the first thing you will see are trees.  This long park system is my favorite part of the entire city.  

I made this photograph from a secret-ish spot on The Pier allowing for a low near water-level viewpoint of the St. Petersburg skyline.  The ten second exposure allowed for some motion blur on the surface of the water and for pulling out the last remaining light in the twilight sky. 

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Light painting during Julie's DSLR Photography Lesson out at The Pier in St. Petersburg FloridaFor our third of four DSLR Photography Lessons I met Julie on a chilly St. Petersburg evening to practice long exposure and night photography.  This type of shooting most definitely requires a tripod, and we pushed the legacy tripod Julie borrowed from her husband to its limits.  We took the trolley out to The Pier, but first had a quick practice of on how to shoot abstract bokeh with her new 50mm lens.  

Being a Monday night we basically had the entire Pier to ourselves, and especially so at my favorite water level spot upon a decaying concrete platform.  Besides showing Julie how to make the usual long exposure shots of the St. Petersburg downtown skyline, we entered a kind of special effects world with light painting.  For the above shot, I set my DSLR on my tripod with a 10 second shutter time.  Using the LED light on the back of my iPhone 4 I "painted" from the tip of Julie's finger down onto the concrete.  I did not astral project myself, I just moved quickly enough not to be fully exposed in the image.  

We went on to practice light trail shots and a number of other things too.  It was an action packed lesson for sure and Julie was great managing with an unfamiliar tripod and getting adept at changing the settings on her Canon 60D in the dark.

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St. Petersburg Florida downtown skyline at night from The Pier - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 20 sec mounted on Induro CT214 tripod with Nikon MC-30 cable releaseIt is easy to make photography all about handheld daytime shots.  After all, one is outside more during the day than at night and cameras are mostly conveniently held in hand.  This is all the more reason to venture out at night, and all the more reason to buy a good tripod.  Want to do something radical with your photography?  Go out at night.  Put your DSLR on your tripod and leave it there.  These two actions will have dramatic effects on both how you make photographs and the photographs you produce.

Photography tip:  shoot at night; shoot on a tripod

Things are calmer at night, at least in St. Petersburg.  Making a photograph using a tripod is a calmer way of producing a shot than handholding the camera.  Night photography requires very long shutter speeds.  For the above image I kept the shutter open 20 seconds.  You cannot just go around shooting willy nilly when just one shot takes 20 seconds.  This is a good thing.  

Working at night on a tripod requires a lot of setup and previsualization before pushing the shutter.  I have not shot at night much in the past myself, but am really liking it and plan on doing it more, especially since earlier this year I bought a "no compromises" tripod that is simply a pleasure to use.  This kind of tripod just plain makes photography more fun.  Does it cost $600 for such a tripod?  Yes, it does.  Are there any cheaper "no compromises" tripods out there?  No, I could not find one.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely.

Please link to your night photography images in the comments below. 

On The Pier Trolley in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 with Tamron 17-50mm lens @ f/11 ISO 200 10 sec on Induro CT214 tripod with cable releaseThe results of this photograph were a complete surprise.  After the ten second exposure when the image popped up on the back of my DSLR I said, "wow."  I was in the middle of teaching a DSLR Photography Lesson at The Pier.  The student and I were up on the top of The Pier making long exposure night cityscape shots.  We came down to wait for the trolley and prepped to make light trail shots once we got back to Beach Drive where there were more cars.  While on the trolley I just casually stood my tripod up.  I decided to push the shutter on the cable release.  The above shot was the result.  

Photography Tip:  make a shot when you would never think to

If I had collapsed my tripod legs and had it and the camera leaning up against my shoulder as I normally would have when on the trolley, this shot would not exist.  If I had not thought, "what the heck, I'll just push the shutter and see what happens," there would be no shot like this.

Now, on my own time I will return and take the trolley and on purpose try to make even better shots than this as I think the results are super cool and I am sure with a few improvements in technique and settings it can be done.  Once I do that I will post again detailing the technique I used.  I cannot wait! 

A home on Smacks Bayou - Nikon D300 with Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens @ f/11 ISO 200 50.4 second exposure on Induro CT214 tripod with cable releaseOnce again an interruptive rain storm allowed me a photography opportunity I would otherwise not of had.  A windy rainstorm swept it right when my evening DSLR Photography Lesson was to start, forcing its rescheduling.  After the rain past I went out onto my back patio with the same gear setup I was to use to teach the lesson with: 

• Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8g macro lens
• Induro CT214 carbon fiber tripod with BDH2 ballhead
• Nikon MC-30 cable release 

That lens choice would not have been my first thought to use for the Smacks Bayou long exposure landscape shot I previsioned, but I wanted to setup a challenge to see if I could make it work.  Instead of feeling restricted, I felt liberated to be using a 105mm prime lens.  I sat down in a chair, let the tripod hold the camera, and even rested the cable release on my lap as once I setup the shot, I let the gear do all the work!  This is an extremely relaxing way to do photography.  

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