From the Park Bench

A 30 sec long exposure, with the camera lying back on the seat of a park bench. In a park, a few minutes after midnight.

The clouds have skudded by, orangey from the street-lamp pollution, the odd clear patch revealing a few stars, trying to peer through.

I was testing out my new (secondhand) very fast ultrawide Sigma 20mm f1.8 that arrived from the ebay seller Saturday midday. Having taken loads with it, on its rightful home, the full-frame Nikon D700 and got some superb shots, esp with a polariser (another beautifully sunny day), I thought I'd go out at 11pm and try low-light stuff on the DX D7000.

Because it was so bright during the day, I could never get to open the lens right up - too much light coming through it, even at 1/8000 shutter speed and the D700's lowest iso setting. I got loads of good, sharp shots with the effective 30mm f1.8, mostly of floodlit buildings and contre-jour stuff. By the time it was near midnight - and thus my next day blip, I was in a dark park, with a river I couldn't see and a view I couldn't focus on. Handheld just wasn't going to cut the mustard, whilst being fun to try, the results were all poor.

So, this, almost by default is the pretty well the only image worth sharing. I'm pleased with it and the lens' performance (here at f6.3), which hasn't been sharpened since, though contrast and brightness have, which has exagerrated the redness a little.