June has arrived and with it comes warmer weather, longer days and temperate nights. One of the many bonuses of longer days is more time for outside photography. We are exploring light this month. Light is the most important element in photography. Without it all photos would be pure black. I am beginning with an exploration of the lights at night.

Anticipation growing during the quiet before the show got started at the Fanfare fountain at the Gateway in San Pedro, CA.

The fountains are choreographed to songs as if the water is dancing.

When photographing lights, I like to expose for the light and create a silhouette of foreground subjects.

Seeing the water moving in time to the music is magical. To capture it, I chose 1600 ISO,   set the f-stop at 4 and varied the shutter speed depending on whether I was going to freeze the water,

or let it blur. Getting swept up in the music and water motion and breaking into your own dance is not uncommon.

Sometimes, it can be hard to resist touching the water.

A tripod is a good idea when photographing in low light situations to avoid blur from camera movement. If you don’t have one with you, placing your camera on a solid surface is an alternative (keeping your camera away from the water, of course!)

Cheers.

~ Susan