Day 9

7/19/10

"Midnight Capitol Across Monona Bay"

Tonight, after my internet went out at around 8:30pm and I read through my new Rock and Ice, Urban Climber, and Climbing Magazines, cover to cover, I decided to go out and shoot some frames to cure my boredom. Though my original plan didn't work out quite as expected (I will share pictures that work in that fashion some other night), I thought of something I had hoped to take on a clear night as this: the reflection of the Wisconsin State Capitol Building, brightly lit up and reflecting off Lake Monona, one of the two lakes that butt up against the isthmus that is downtown Madison.

I took this right after midnight, probably around 12:15pm. Constantly worried that I will get accosted by police, even though I am always on public land with no posted time restrictions. After a parking mishap that lead to a ticket, I might be a little paranoid now. I sit listening to NPR (970 AM in Madison) in a parking lot next to Lake Side Fibers coffee shop, which turns out is closed for July, not that it matters much at 1:00am. You can still get WIFI!

The photo is just cropped, however just processed slightly from its RAW file. Just adjusting the brightness and black level. Not done as an HDR. After taking many pictures on both bulb settings and long exposures (15 seconds - 30 seconds), it became quite obvious that I need a remote trigger, so I will likely pick one up tomorrow. Additionally, as is seemingly the case with nighttime photography, there is a lot of noise in the sky, a bit more on the uploaded photo than in RAW or TIFF, but some there as well. I may have to consider buying Noiseware to start getting rid of noise in my photos, because its so bothersome to me and I feel it ruins some photos. Here however, I am overall very happy with my photo tonight.

As always, click for a larger photo.