Custom Search

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

If, on a summer night

...oppressed by the heat, pacing aimlessly about the house while everyone else peacefully sleeps, you would step on the balcony in search of that elusive bit of freshness, start fiddling with the camera to give yourself a sense of purpose, pray for some breeze and try to enjoy the view:


You would learn two important lessons:

1. 'night scene' setting on Olympus doesn't really work unless you have a tripod--the shutter speed is so slow that even your breath can disturb the camera and produce a blur.

2. 'available light' is comparably better, but shooting images in the dark is obviously not this camera's forte.

Which is quite a lot of wisdom for one muggy night.

6 comments:

Dumdad said...

Photography seems so easy yet can be so difficult. My best photos are usually "accidents"!

Polly said...

This is a great view to wake up to! I think I wouldn't mind sleepless nights if I had something like that to look at.

And yes, the night setting is tricky... it works on Nikon. You must get a Nikon! Especially with the blog camp coming up :-)

P.S. I love that book by Italo Calvino. Have you read Invisible Cities??

Grazyna said...

Hi there, a small tip, I use a 2-second delay mode to take night photos without a tripod. Hugs - Grazyna.

Jelica said...

Thanks for the tip, Grazyna! I will have to check if I have that option on my camera, otherwise I'll just wait until I get that Nikon (need to sell a kidney first).

Polly, I didn't like "If on a winter night a traveler" years back when I read it, so it stopped me from reading anything else by Calvino. I think I still have it, though, so will check it again. Maybe it wasn't the right time!

Dumdad--yes, it always seems easy with other people's photos. I'm never quite happy with mine but I keep trying anyway :)

Lorac said...

We are experiencing just the opposite! Normally this time of year it would be hot and muggy, but instead the nights have been cool and much lower day temperatures than normal.

ceecee said...

Hot and muggy here too. I enjoyed your photos from Croatia. I was away from blogging for a month, (although I didn't travel) and I found it very refreshing to be back in the 'Old World'. Ruslan, I will always remember your story of climbing cherry trees after the rain and eating them until you couldn't eat another one. Now I tell people that story all the time.
Enjoy your weekend.
Catherine