06 November 2006

Night Photography


Some of my Flickr friends are expert night photographers. I've been looking at their stuff for a long time now trying to learn from what they do. Most of the time you can click on someone's photo and find an incredible amount of detail about their camera, what their settings were, what time the photo was taken and other details.

The other night our power went out just as Saturday Night Live was about to start. After we got some candles lit and Brad went back to work putting together some savory pastries for next Saturday's party, I went outside to see if I could see how extensive the outage was.


It was nice, for a change, not having so many street lights on. The moon was full, though, so there was plenty of light. I'd like to have the power go out on a night where there is no moon so I can shoot photos of the stars.

But there was a beautiful big ring around the moon so I was excited about capturing it.

Tonight I walked down to Marina Park thinking I could get some nice shots across the bay. But I went to the wrong place. I took a few shots but just came back after seeing a skunk run across my path. There isn't much to see around here although window-peeping came to mind. The driving range is mildly interesting, I suppose, since it's a double-decker. I like seeing the golf balls stuck in random places in the big nets.
I tried to capture a moth in a very intense light but gave up and left a little short of what I hoped for. Still, I think this is an interesting shot. Click on it for a larger size. It's less headachy when it's larger.


Tomorrow is a big day. After voting, I'm going to San Francisco to see a quilt show at the new deYoung Museum. I won't be able to take photos, though, according to what I read because it's a special exhibition. Here's the link: http://www.thinker.org/deyoung/exhibitions/exhibition.asp?exhibitionkey=549 I saw something on PBS about these quilts so I'm excited about seeing them in person.

3 comments:

Leslie said...

I read about that quilt collection recently, in Smithsonian magazine, I think it was. Very cool and I'd love to go! I am so interested in handmade quilts of any people, time, style.

Several years back I saw an exhibit at the Honolulu Academy of Arts and I wonder if it was these same people? It was called "Who'd A Thought It," improvisation in African-American quiltmaking, and the only reason I know that is because I bought a catalog and just grabbed it off my shelf.

Nope, I see now, different people. This is Eli Leon's collection of African American quilts, more than 300, accumulated primarily in Oakland CA over the last ten years. (How funny that it's your neck of the woods.)

This link talks about both your quilt show and "mine." Background reading!

Jim Webb said...

Yeah, Oakland Museum has a fabulous quilt collection. I've only seen one show there but yesterday's visit to the de Young got me really excited about going back to work on my own projects.

My sewing machine, an inherited piece of crap, is in the garage awaiting funeral services though. So I'm a little frustrated.

Eily said...

Jim, did you go to DeYoung and see those quilts? Bran and I went when we were there in October. Actually I ditched Bran in some other part of the museum that I wasn't interested in and went to the quilts. There's an interesting little "closet" in that display area that has some textiles in drawers. Kinda interesting. We should go together the next time I'm there.