First bulb shots

Ok so my cheapo chinese remote shutter release arrived today, so I thought I'd have a go at shooting with bulb. Not ideal as I only have a flimsy tripod at the moment as Santa has told me I'm not allowed to use my new one until Xmas day.

Nothing original here, but always nice to achieve them yourself, no matter how cliched.

The first shot was taken over the M4, tried to make it a little bit different to the usual traffic trail fodder with the mid frame split of the fencing. Think this shot has potential & will be revisiting when I get a wider lens. Also would have been nice to shoot a little earlier when there was more colour on the horizon but was struggling to get a long enough exposure, even at smallest aperture. So some ND filters will be on my shopping list too.

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/m4split.jpg[/IMG]



Second one was on the short drive home. Thought I'd experiment with bulb mode to see what kind of times were required. Tried to judge it by the amount of light I was passing & to my pleasure most of my shots turned out ok, bit naughty whilst driving though, does my remote release count as hands free ? I chose this shot as it has the most colour & pleasing lines.

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/incar2.jpg[/IMG]


Thanks for looking & comments/critique are welcome of course.

Bob

i like both shots especially the second but naughty naughty and bulb is something i havent tried what so ever

You mean the traffic actually moves on this section of motorway?

These are very good for first time bulb exposures, as for the second shot I want to know where the third leg of the tripod was placed

Actually I used a monopod wedged behind the drivers seat for the 2nd shot (2 seater, so just reversed the seat til it was secure). Just an ad-hoc solution as I only thought of it when I got in the car to come home. Luckily my legs are long enough !

I like the first shot best.Would look lovely on my wall! I really do like it

Good shots,was that BrynGlas Tunnel you were driving through, hope Plod was not scanning you.

2nd shot not from in a tunnel just out in the open air. It's a good time of year to try this type of shot with all the xmas lights around. The remote release was sat on my lap & using it was far less dangerous$ than smoking/eating/drinking whilst driving, would be preferable to operate it as a passenger though.

Thanks for the comments, these were my first shots in anger with the K20d, I'd tried some test shots at home to get used to the handling, but these were the first shots I took with the intention of processing them, so I'm fairly pleased with the results. Hopefully I'll improve as I get to grips with a Dslr, although I'm not promising anything !

Tried a little Post Processing on the shot of the M4 as the first turned out alot different than it was looking in Photoshop. Have sorted that by working in monitor colourspace. I'll have to do a few trials to see how my prints look compared to onscreen, but it's working for web entries for now.

Original:
[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/m4split.jpg[/IMG]

Rework:
[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/M4SPLIT2.jpg[/IMG]

Darker works for me.
I found the expanse of road in the foreground ugly, so the last one is a definite improvement.
love the in-car shot BTW