Variety of shots - C&C requested

Pcubed · Oct 31, 2009

I haven't been using my camera too much but I've recently gone on a road trip to St. Louis and have taken some shots. Although these shots were taken in St. Louis, I didn't shoot anything related to the city itself. So no landscape or architecture shots. Sorry to disappoint but thanks for looking!

1. I was trying to go for the commonly seen photos where the person's face is more focused than whatever limb they're sticking out. This was shot at night (obviously) with a street lamp for lighting. Is the light too strong or does it provide a good effect? Shot at f/2.8 at 1/20 sec. with ISO 400. I realize the ISO may be a little high with so much lighting available but I was playing around with settings on Manual mode after reading parts of Understanding Exposure. I guess I forgot to change the ISO for this shot.

2. The St. Louis Arch. Shot at f/8 at 1/20 sec with ISO 800. It was getting pretty dark out and I could only make handheld shots since I had no tripod.

3. This was on the way to Tennessee from Atlanta. I thought it looks cool that you can see me in the sideview mirror taking the photo. Not sure if it's considered photography per se. Shot at f/8 at 1/20 sec with ISO 100.

4. I'm guessing this may come off as looking like a snapshot. I thought the bright light coming from the head of the lamp offers a cool contrast with the dark shadow it caused on the ground. If there's a better way I could take pictures like this in the future, please don't hesitate to share. Also, it's probably obvious that the lamp post looks a little crooked. I don't have any photo editing programs and only use DPP to adjust exposures. If anyone knows of free programs that could let me straighten images, let me know. Shot at f/2.8 at 1/15 sec with ISO 400.