Continuing from where I was last post, the water is flowing again at HemisFair Plaza, site of the 1968 World's Fair here in San Antonio. All of these photos were taken around the base of the Tower of the Americas. 
These were all made using shutter speeds of 2-5 seconds, and a tripod is of course mandatory or you'll just get a blurry, shaky mess. 
About now I'm getting the results I was after. I closed-down my aperture to allow less light (f8 @iso100) which allowed me to use a long enough shutter speed to blur the water the way I wanted. 
This one is the most popular among local photographers, with a number of fans around the state and in other countries, too.
This photo is my personal favorite, and while it has it's share of votes from around the world, it might be a little too artificial-looking and lacking in a subject that connects for some people. That's cool.
I still love it and plan to make a print or two because it represents what I enjoy most about photography, which is my tendency to push the envelope of my equipment's capabilities as well as my vision of how I wish the world could look to the naked eye.
Night photography in particular captures the passage of time, making photos that are somehow more than just a tiny slice of reality.
They seem to live and breathe a little more.
A big thanks to smarti77 of Adelaide Australia for doing an excellent processing job on the last photo.
His edit reminded me to use all of the tools already at my disposal and to let my photos sit for a time before deciding exactly how to approach them, instead of getting excited and rushing them into publication.
2 comments:
This is one fantastic series of shots, and your observation about allowing pictures to "simmer" awhile before any rush to publication applies to many of us.
"Simmer" is the perfect word!! On the stove, looked at every once in a while, letting the flavors blend, deciding what it really needs to perfect it. I usually live with my rushed edits online as a painful reminder, but will always go back and do a better job for prints. It's rarely the crop, as I'm rather decisive at composing in the field and in Photoshop very quickly. But I sometimes miss the boat on the levels adjustment that's best, and I'm most often bitten on the rump by tiny details in the corners that should have been cloned-out or burned. Thanks for the comment, Bruce. Glad I'm not alone.
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