Pasadena Night Lights

For some reason I've been a little intimidated of night photography. While I love looking at nighttime photos of light streaks, star trails, and especially the city lights of Los Angeles, I've been a little afraid of trying it myself. Here are a few reasons why:

1) First of all, I'm a little scared about venturing out at night alone...especially since I won't be paying much attention to my surroundings (besides what in my camera's viewfinder) and I think I'd be too preoccupied with my camera to notice if someone snuck up being me or tried to attack me. I'm a wimp. 

2) Tri-pods intimidate me. They look all complicated and the only one I've ever used is this crappy one that I bought from Best Buy for $30 bucks, and even that one was hard to use. Plus, when I see other photographers using a tri-pod, they intimidate me too- especially when they're snapping away with this awesome pro camera while I'm having a hard time mounting my Nikon D60. Also, I'm a little clumsy.

3) When I try to photograph cars driving by, I feel like the drivers are starring at me saying, "hey, why are you photographing me, stop that!" I don't think they realize that I just want to capture their "light streak" and not their actual face or license plate...well at least that's what I'm imagining but they could very well not even notice me standing there.

4) Lastly, I would love to photograph the Los Angeles lights, sunsets, and traffic but have no idea where to go for this. I've seen photographs online but I have no clue where these people are taking the photos from. If someone could come up with a list of places with the address that I can GPS, that would be great. Because I get lost easily.

SO ANYWAYS, last weekend when the hubby was away (in Vegas for a boys only trip!) I decided I was going to do something new- and I finally gave this nighttime thing a shot. I headed to the Pasadena bridge, where we usually watch fireworks from, and I was surprised at how easy it was! It took me a little while to set up my tri-pod but once it was up, it wasn't all that bad. There were also 2 other small groups of photographers there so I wasn't afraid of being attacked, and they were super friendly and not intimidating at all. 

Here are a few photos I took from the Pasadena Bridge:

Pretty huh? I need to work on my composition and technique but overall I was happy with my first night time photography attempt. I will for sure do this again- maybe next time on a weekday so I can get more of the traffic streaks (there weren't too many cars driving by on a weekend night). And my awesome hubby said he'll go with me and even photograph some himself. Perfect!

Have you tried something that you were a little intimidated of and found out that it wasn't all that bad?