Lights in the darkness

This is the Cana Island Lighthouse in Door County, Wisconsin in the middle of a moonlit night. An exposure of two and a half minutes gathered barely enough light to expose the photo. (Tip: I learned a hard lesson about trusting the bright LCD screen of a digital camera in near darkness - you will always see the photo as brighter than it actually is. Try squinting at the image. It will give you a more accurate rendition.)

A long exposure will give you a photo of motion. In this case, the clouds and stars crisscross each other in the night sky. More subtly, the moonlight creeps along the surface of the lighthouse, shadows slowly shifting as the moon completes its arc across the sky.

Be sure to click on the picture to see it at full size.

Click on this post's headline to see image EXIF data. Photograph © 2008 James Jordan.