I bought a couple of new toys for my camera today. I got a cheap flash as well as a remote control which allows me to do exposures for however long I like. Tonight I wanted to try my new toys out.
There’s this place called Bastanchury Hill. It’s the highest point in Fullerton. My idea was that I would go there and get some really long exposures of the city lights and perhaps capture the movement of the stars. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single star to see in the night sky. Nevertheless, I figured there must be some nice pictures to take up there. As I was walking around to find a nice angle I spotted the oil derricks. This metal beast looked awesome looming over the moon in the distance so I decided to snap a picture or two. Suddenly they started moving and I got my field recorder out because I just couldn’t pass up capturing the sound. Most of the exposures I did of the derricks were from 5 to 10 minutes long. During the exposure I walked as close as could and triggered my flash in order to imprint a sharper moment into the picture. I’m definitely looking forward to experimenting with this flash.
Afterwards I started driving home and I noticed that due to all the grease and dirt and muck on my windshield I was seeing these amazing light streaks coming from all of the street lamps and traffic lights. So I decided to park in a few places to try to capture that as well. It was pretty surprising to me how beautiful the light was.