Beneath the City Lights

Back around mid-May Bud & I decided it was time for round 2 of capturing the Austin skyline after dark.
I can not stress enough that night photography is hard.
There are so many factors that can vary making each night a new challenge.
The first time we had gone out at the end of April it had been overcast which was a challenge because the city lights were casting a lot of light on the clouds during the long exposure time and it didn't always look DARK  in the pictures:

So 2 weeks later we decided to try again.

This time it was a full moon.

We had hoped that the moon would line up with the city background, but as it turns out that doesn't happen every month.

It came up just to the south of the following views.

Again a factor we had no control over.

The upside was that we captured, what I considered, some better pictures of the skyline:

A tighter frame of the city.

A little further away.

The furthest away view.

All in all I am much happier with these pictures than the previous sessions!

I would like to have one more attempt at the skyline on a night with NO moon, just to see how we fare.

The one thing that I KNOW I need to work on is finding that perfect balance in shutter speed and ISO.

If it's too fast than the picture is too dark 

However, the longer the shutter speed the more light I get radiating off the buildings.

You can see the rays radiating off the "Gothem-city-esque" building on
the left side of the photo.

Again, as previously stated, I was much happier with this photo shoot and the chance to go for a late night walk with my hubby away from the hustle and bustle of our recently very hectic schedules!

That being said, if anyone has any suggestions or know-how on night photography I'm all ears!

I hope you all had a Blessed Thursday!