Light Trails

For years (literally) I have been fascinated with light trails.  I've slowly picked up the equipment needed to do long exposure photography, primarily a cable shutter release, and 10 stop filter (a really dark filter), and a few tutorials on how to shoot long exposure photos, but I had't really done anything about it.  Last night after working on some statistical analysis (I had an inspiration driving home while listening to Nassim Taleb's The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable), I decided that I should take my mental health break early in the morning and try to photograph some light trails.

Every time I walk across the Legacy Bridge, I always think it would be a good spot to shoot light trails, with cars going both directions.

Interestingly, as I was walking to the bridge this morning I noticed how much light there was - street lights, lights from buildings, and lights on the bridge. Looking - and seeing - with intention is a nice feeling; it's the anticipation of trying something new and seeing how it goes.

While there are things I will do differently on future attempts, I'm really pleased with how my first attempts at light trails came out.  It is a whole different sort of seeing than trying to catch a bouncy dog mid-bounce, and that's really cool!

Looking south; at this time of day, there are a lot more cars going toward the hospital than away from it.

Still looking south. The red lights on the middle right side are the TRAX train.

I really wanted to get some tail lights, so I started looking toward the hospital.

The arc on the low left side is from the crossing guard for the TRAX train - and the red lights on the left side are the TRAX train itself.

Soooo cool!

Yep, these are pretty cool! I definitely want to try some new things next time, but I'm really pleased with my first attempt!

It was really cold out there, so I could only stay for about 40 minutes, but I managed to just barely catch the first hints of the sun.