Day 6. Night Photo Try 1.

In my few attempts at taking a night photo, I've ended up with either all blackness, or with a photo that looks like it was taken in daylight.  (This was always from my use of the all powerful 'auto' mode.  Obviously auto wasn't working for me.) 

I have now read about manual mode, and thought that if I played with shutter priority and used a tripod, that I should get a usable picture. So since I felt strong and refreshed from a relaxing holiday weekend, I decided I would head to the top of hospital hill and tackle the darkness.  With the lack of snow, one might not know that it was a brisk 25 degrees out, however I donned a winter hat and gloves this trek out, and barely even noticed the cold.   (A far cry from how I felt during my photographing expedition on Friday when I went sans hat and gloves - brrrrr.  Lesson learned. Hat = Heat = Patience during photographing.)

Photograph was a moderate success! 

My tripod is my husband's old tripod, and I could not get it to stay locked in the tallest position.  The camera would wobble a bit and the tripod slipped down as I pressed the shutter button.  I also had trouble figuring out which of the knobs would tilt the camera to a slight upward angle.  I ended up decreasing the length of the back legs on the tripod, which seemed to help, although there has to be a better way.  It was pretty awkward, lots of messing around to get the view I wanted in my viewfinder.

But since I actually achieved a picture where you can tell it is nighttime, and I can pick out a few trees and the street below, I'm calling it a success. 

Watertown, SD, looking northwest from the highest view I've found so far in the city (the hospital).  Not as spectacular as the night skyline in big cities probably, but it's what I've got in my backyard.