Night Photography

I love my Nikon D40, unfortunately I still have barely a clue how to use it outside of Auto mode. There are a lot of really great features that I would like to learn how to use, unfortunately little things like being a mom, working full time, taking classes, and watching Grey's Anatomy keep getting in the way. So basically I have been learning as I go a little bit at a time.

One of the things I want to do is night photography. So the other night...when it was thirty below zero I noticed that we had some ice fog and that it had created light pillars. They were not especially dramatic light pillars so I thought I might try and photograph them.



Here is a really great picture of my neighbor's junkyard in the dark. If you look in the background you might see some light pillars.

I have been wanting to take some aurora photographs but it's not that easy. When you have your camera already attached to the tripod and ready to go there will be no aurora. When you are out riding around behind town looking at the sky, there will be no aurora. When you are driving home from work at thirty below and you have no camera there will be really great aurora. So you speed home, get your camera, try screwing it onto the tripod and cuss when you can't get it threaded right, finally get it on, run out side, and guess what? No more aurora. Well I did manage to catch a piece...a small sliver......



See it? See it? Well....it's a start.