Search for:

Friday Harbor Reflections

Weekend Reflections

James, over at Newton Area Photo
hosts a fun meme called Weekend Reflections.
Grab a camera and play along.
And even if you don’t join us,
be sure to check out James’ dazzling photos.

Night Falls on Friday Harbor

I took this photo from the deck of the apartment we are living in at University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs. I didn’t have a tripod, so I put my camera down on the balcony rail, composed the picture, then set the exposure for 45 seconds. Ta da!

56 Comments

    1. Tony, we aren’t in our new place. We’ll move into the house when our furniture arrives from Hawaii. In the meantime, we are in temporary staff housing on the lab grounds.

    1. Thom — can’t wait for you to see it yourself! Guess what, Amoeba is on his way to Hawaii tomorrow morning. He’ll be in Kona on business through Wednesday.

    1. Cindy — Friday Harbor is in Washington State, on San Juan Island, in Puget Sound, between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.

    1. Barbara — I am uncertain which ship my furniture is on. Unlike the folks moving my car who gave me a tracking number (I just saw the ship at sea). I just have to wait for Allied to call and schedule final delivery.

  15. Beautiful night reflections, and what a view! I’m still trying to get the hang of being comfortable with a tripod, it never fails that when I get it set up I find something that I want to grab the camera and shoot!

  16. I’m impressed at the 45 seconds. Did you guess or try various exposures? That’s a LONG time to hold the shutter down.

    One thing I’ve learned when trying a very slow (under a second) exposure with hand held or placed on a fence post or whatever: if it’s something like an eighth of a second, I keep the shutter pressed firmly down until AFTER I hear the shutter sound. The release of the button jars the camera at least as much as pressing it, so holding it past the exposure time does help the sharpness quite a bit, I’ve found.

    Lovely shot!
    .-= Sara Chapman in Seattle, USA´s last blog ..Pink camelia =-.

    1. Sara — I had my camera on auto, so I pressed the shutter and let go. It releases at the programmed time. In this case, 45 seconds. I took a shot with a longer exposure and a shot with a shorter exposure. Both of them have clarity issues.

  17. Quilly what a beautiful view you have. Excellent capture. As long you put your camera on something hard and stable it works like tripod. I am not sure how big your camera is, but my DSLR vibrates after I press the button with my hand, so I also put on the timer that way it clicks internally and eliminates the initial vibration that can cause the blur. Hope this helps, but this is nothing to do with your photo, it is just perfect. Anna 🙂
    .-= Anna´s last blog ..Kids Say the Darndest Things – I Am Mona Lisa Now! =-.

    1. Anna — I have a DSLR and I took the photo with the timer. That was how I knew it was a 45 second exposure. And yes, any solid object can serve as a tripod in a pinch. Incidently, I do own a tripod, it is just on a Pacific cruise right now and we won’t be reunited for another 4 weeks or so.

    1. Polona — I learned the coolest things about night exposure in my camera class. Did you know that on a dark, moonless night you can “paint” with light? Set the camera to bulb, then set it for a one minute exposure and move the beam from a flash light over whatever it is you wish the camera to record. The end result is pretty awesome.

  31. That is the *prettiest* photo! From the leafy silhouette to that wonderfully bright beam of light across the water that outshines the rest, I love this. I always loved being near the water.

    Can’t wait for next week, after reading the comments — but dang you’re setting this reflection bar very high!
    .-= Susan at Stony River´s last blog ..Microfiction Monday #15 =-.

Comments are closed.