Shot in the Dark

...Patience please if the image below is slow to load….

Clicked this photo last Saturday evening after a light rainfall. No idea whether it is male or female but since it kind of stopped to “pose” I think it’s a sheSnail.

I’d seen one of it’s kind on a previous evening but I had no batteries in hand. This time I whipped out my ready camera, set it to macro, got down on my knees, crept up close and took a snap...then a second snap...but I stopped clicking more since I felt the creature would not appreciate the bright flash of my camera. I was worried that other pedestrians wouldn’t see it in the dark and squash it to death but after a few long hesitant seconds I left it on its way….

Another reason I stopped staying with the creature was because I was afraid that people would think I was surveying it up close to decide whether it would make a good side dish for dinner. Snail Soup anyone?

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The above photo of the main road going / coming from the airport I took last Tuesday evening. After having shot the slow moving snail it struck my mind that I should capture something opposite to it in a way – fast moving traffic on the highway. The busy main road is just a jump away from the quiet residential block that I reside in so off I went to shoot the road from a footbridge over it.

There are loads of beautiful shots of this nature one can find on the internet and I also always wanted to at least try shooting one. The easiest way I know is to lower one’s camera shutter speed below the auto or normal settings. Hold the camera really steady or get a tripod and click. Even just a very slight shake will cause undesired results. But if you do want an abstract effect one can intentionally move the camera a bit while clicking. Experiment. I also soon found out that if the stream of traffic is thin then the photo doesn’t come out that cool...
Okay, enough of my tutorial...loads of good resources up online….

One can get decent digital cameras at cheap prices these days or you can always use the inbuilt cameras in your mobile phones or rather use cameras with phones. I own an outdated entry level digital camera by today’s standards but it has all the basic features in it.

Its great fun and with due respect to professional photographers out there I believe photography is a field where the learning curve is not too steep if you enjoy shooting & experimenting with your camera - both technical + artistic aspects. So, start shooting … [Becoming a professional paparazzo is optional.]