Experimenting with "B"

Last Saturday night, about 11:00 pm, I experimented with longer exposures. 

It was a beautiful night, no visible moon, no wind, and no mosquitoes!  A perfect night to set up the tripod and see what we can do with the "B" setting.   "B" stands for bulb.  With this setting, the shutter stays open for as long as you hold it down.  

Necessary items: 

1. Tripod.   You can't hold the camera steady without it.
2. A shutter release:  A cable that connects to the camera with a button you push to release the shutter.  This has a lock on it so you can push it, lock it, and walk away while the shutter remains open.
3. If you have auto focus lenses, you want to turn them to manual focus.  The auto focus activates a small gyroscope which can cause the camera to vibrate in the tripod with the longer exposures.  This is NOT good for image clarity.

I was pretty happy with the results!

The first two images are of solar lights on a glass table-top.    The exposure on the first was about 10 seconds.  The exposure on the second was about 15 seconds (smaller apature setting)

I was rather excited about this last photo.  The exposure was about 15 minutes.  I was stunned to see shadows on the water and how sharp the image was.  The lights are small garden solar lights.

I definitely will try this again.  ?