Well, not alone entirely. I've got my laptop with me, and the crickets chirping around me. In fact, I'm only in my backyard (though I live in a relatively rural part of suburbia with a large backyard unaffected by modern cookie-cutter landscaping). Earlier today, a post came up in my newsreader about the total solar eclipse on August 1st, and the images sparked that tingle that ultimately leads to low-light photography. Low-light and night photography is an acquired art, one that requires a certain degree of planning and skill. (Photograph above via The Big Picture)

Fast forward about a day now- After I came inside last night, I managed to get a couple of good images from the shots I took. I chose to process my images in black and white, mainly so I could experiment more with the style in digital. One commonly faced problem with shooting long exposure images in digital is sensor noise and overheating. The shots that came out well for me were around six minutes long each, coupled with a second exposure the camera takes with the mirror down in order to find noise and eliminate it. As you can guess, this is an extremely long process. With film, however, exposures can be measured in hours with absolutely no noise (as long as a low-iso film is used, of course). With these long shots, photographers often capture long star trails, as the stars move across the night sky. Even with relatively short exposures, however, star trails are still entirely possible.

Yes, it's true that I love night photography. Unfortunately, my subject matter has been fairly limited. For nearly two years now, I've been trying to plan an overnight trip out to the Anza Borrego desert, about an hour and a half east of where I live in San Diego County. Anza Borrego is a popular location for photographers due to the unique desert landscape it provides. And though it still suffers from light pollution, it is relatively harmless compared to the rest of the county. In addition, I've seen many photographers who have used a full moon to their advantage, photographing the landscape in an eerie light. I'll add it to my list of places I need to desperately photograph.