Licenced to Shoot

Triple Barrelled, originally uploaded by Me (?).

That is not a shotgun, that is my tripod. It looks worryingly like a shotgun at first glance I am slightly worried that I might get 'taken out' whilst wondering the streets. Lets face it, the time I am most likely to be using the tripod is when the light is poor, and the most likely time for the weapon based mistake to occur.

The reason for this post is not to moan about my triple barrelled shooting stick but rather to show off a few pictures I took the other night whilst wandering Pewley Down at sunset.

I have been reading Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book and that gave me a few tips and a few ideas:

1) Become married to your tripod because you never know when you need it. I am seriously tempted to take my tripod with me whenever I go out in the car and have my camera with me.

Moon, originally uploaded by Me (?).

2) If you have image stabilisation on the lens, when using with a tripod, turn it off to get a sharper image.

Moonlighting, originally uploaded by Me (?).

3) If you are taking sunset shots, make them more interesting by adding silhouettes.

Alison and I, originally uploaded by Me (?).

4) Use the flash to bring out any foreground objects.

Pewley Down, originally uploaded by Me (?).

5) And an extra tip from me. Don't do what I *always* forget to do and give the lens a good clean before taking greater than f/11 shots. I spend ages cleaning off all the dust spots!

Potty about Orange, originally uploaded by Me (?).

This was my first proper attempt at sunset, tripod based shooting and I think the results are rather good.