Insomniac Photography

In past posts, I have shared photos of Mission Bay at sunset. This morning, early this morning, I had a chance to try some night photography of Mission Bay. Click on the photos for much larger images. The small images embedded in this post don't do the scene justice.

The first thing I discovered is that in automatic mode, my camera slows the shutter speed so much that my normally steady hand seems quite wiggly indeed. Here's Mount Soledad. I just wish it would stop moving so much!


I got out my tripod and mounted the camera on it. Unfortunately, the tripod doesn't quite clear the railing of my balcony, so I had to get a shot through the glass below the railing. I must keep the glass cleaner than I thought since none of the dirt seems to show up. With the tripod, Mount Soledad stopped jumping around enough for me to get a relatively clean picture.


Mission Bay, Mission Beach and the Pacific Ocean are a lovely sight at night. My photography is a poor substitute for the real thing.


The line of lights is the thin strip of Mission Beach that separates Mission Bay from the Pacific. At first I thought I was witnessing the reflected light of dawn off the clouds, but checking east I could see that wasn't the case. The clouds are reflecting the city lights. I thought that was a rather striking effect.

The next step is to figure out the manual setting for shutter speed so I can get crisper city lights photos. That and some way of making my tripod taller. Maybe it needs some special vitamins to make it grow...