Night shots with my 17mm Tokina lens

A couple of nights ago I wanted to drag my lazy self to a nearby school to take photos of their awesome fountain. I knew that it was time for me to do it soon as it is already nearing the cold season and the water in the fountain will soon be shut off for the rest of the year so I'll have to wait till spring of next year till I can photograph it again.

So I pack my bag with a body, tripod and 2 lenses. My 17mm to take really wide angle shots of the fountain and a 50mm just to have a longer lens so I can photograph whatever I can see with a normal view. I took my mountain bike straight to the school lugging my bag full of equipment.

On my way there there was an awesome full moon on the side of the trail. Now this is what blows about having just most prime lenses. I have two lenses with me that were really short to capture the full moon. So I basically just put the 50mm in my camera, took shots and that was it. Nothing really that exciting. The shots came out ok, though I could've really used a longer lens than a 50. But hey, I didn't know.

So I get to my destination, parked my bike on the side of the road and put the 17mm into my camera body. Snapped my camera into my tripod and then I was off! First off I went into my primary subject. The fountain! I made sure that my camera was secured in my tripod before I set it down. So I set my camera to manual mode, and the started shooting.

I shot the fountain from different angles. Starting out in the front taking shots all the way around till I got to where I started. The setup was easy, I just took one portrait and then one landscape shot for each view. The landscape shots is just to show the lights that were in the parking lot behind the fountain. So it seemed like the fountain wasn't floating in space. There were instances that there was wind and it was blowing water into my camera. Too bad my lens isn't weather sealed, it doesn't even have a filter either. For situations like this, I recommend putting a non coated uv filter in front of your lens to protect it. Non coated filters though are less resistant to ghosts, but they are easier to clean in conditions like this. The coated ones will just smudge the water droplets into the glass.



My best position in photographing the fountain. No water droplets splashing into my lens.






I shot a couple in the fountain area and I was done. Grabbed my bike and moved on. I then stumbled upon a few neat night scenes around the school so I put my tripod down again and started doing shots.



This was in the front of the school facing the main road. This was actually my first time this late in this place.



The entrance near the fountain. I thought it was a neat shot in between the trees at night with a slow shutter speed.

I will do more of these in the future...especially near the holiday season when all the lights are up. Make sure though that you dress warmly when you do this. Also if you are unsure of the neighborhood you're in, I suggest not to go alone with all your equipment. Go with somebody. It's best to stay safe!