Closing Time (tale of a blip)

The day had been hot.

The day had been hot. Even at 6pm when I left work the temperature was at 30C! The evening I had arranged to meet some friends downtown for a drink, a chance to cool down and unwind from the week. Arriving a bit ahead of time I took the chance to explore the backstreets. Even from a distance I noticed an enticing smell. Slight at first but as I moved on it was getting stronger. Until I turned the corner and then it hit me. Full power. One of the best man-made smells, fresh ground coffee.

I took out the camera and start taking photos, while leaning to a lamppost for better support. There wasnt enough light so at the program mode the camera was going to 1sec shutter time. So switching to shutter priority I increased the shutter speed as far as I could without letting the image get too dark, up to 1/4sec. Still a bit too fast but I set the timer for 2sec and at the crucial time I became a statue, holding my breath even. Got a couple of pictures but I still wasn?t happy. The colors were really off, unnatural! I figured that white balance must be off. Went into the camera menu for white balance for one-push-set and then start looking around for a big white surface. Found one, under a similar light to the one in the shop, and took the setting with the one-push-set option. Ready then I took the final photos and the result is here!

The longest entry I have written so far but this came from a lot of experimentation of the different features described, I am quite pleased with the result and I wanted to write down the process so I will remember it even better and writing it down I decided to share it ;-)