A Dark and Stormy Night...

Okay so not really so dark or stormy. I'd had it in my head to take some night photos from the Ross Island Bridge, but the rain really was coming down quite hard. I was speaking to my friend and colleague Joni about doing this picture a day thing and she came up with a great suggestion. Why not throw some Ziploc bags over my speedlights and try for some night portraits in the rain. I'd seen Joni use that very technique for a number of weddings she's shot, and the resulting images were breathtaking.

Remember, she said, don't forget to go with a longer shutter speed to make sure that rain shows up. Okay check. I threw a pair of speedlights onto some lightstands, Ziploc'd em and got them into place and made this first shot. It was a steady drizzle and I was happy the droplets were showing up against that backlight. I set my timer and was set to jump into the shot when (of course) it stopped raining. Great. Ahh well, took a few shots anyway. Yay two-point lighting.

However, a fortunate thing happened, the sky actually cleared a bit and the moon came out. I already had my camera set on a tripod, so I figured I'd turn my camera skyward. Shot at F10, 1000 ISO and a 10 second exposure. I didn't think I'd be able to get the stars to come out this close in to town, but hey, what do you know. Anyway, here are the shots. I promise I'll try to get a proper subject to model for me soon. Guessing on where to set the focus manually gets old real quick.