Saturday night and at home cooking dinner utilizing my limited culinary skills when I realize I need a can of mushroom soup. For non-riders I imagine a nighttime trip to the grocery store a nuisance at best and more likely a major frustration. For a rider like me a trip into the night is a welcome chance to ride.
I feel comfortable riding the Vespa for 125 miles before worrying about fuel. At each fill-up I reset the trip odometer and refuel when the counter shows 70 miles. The added trip to the gas station provided a little more riding.
Riding to pick up mushroom soup is about as mundane a ride as you can get in the United States. I’ve spoken to three riders in the past week — one rode across country again, another had just returned from a trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the third from Colorado. I rode to the grocery store for a can of mushroom soup. But it was at night…
On the way home I stopped for a picture of Mt. Nittany. It was black and I could barely see so I decided to try a high ISO setting on my little Canon G15 — ISO 12800. I was able to make a hand held exposure at 1/4 sec. at F2.8 of the Vespa idling in a field with the mountain in the distance. Definitely a lot of luminance noise in the picture but it does a decent job of depicting the night time world of a Vespa ride.
Home now, dinner finished, dishes done and ready to move on towards dreamland. Glad I had an opportunity for a little ride, if only to fetch a can of soup.
I have to try that pushing of the ISO for night shots…..hmmmm…..
Referring to the last high ISO photo, do you think that results with film would have been better? I keep getting the digital noise and keep thinking that I need a camera with a larger sensor…
Yes, a larger sensor would most likely help some but I will share an interesting happening I had of late. While doing a walk around ~group walk~ for night time street photography I got to see several photographers, different camera makes and models, D glass and G glass lens and the ISO settings they used for their shots. Not to start a brand war but Nikon was the King of the night photography results. Sony came in a very close 2nd, Nikon uses the Sony sensors in some of their models. I have many different cameras ranging from 1″sensors to Pro-level full frames of different brands…Nikon, Sony, Canon, Apex, Go-Pro and the list goes on. That said, for night shots it’s the Nikon D2XS ~an oldie but wonderful!~ followed by the Sony A100 ~ another oldie but goodie still~. Then the Nikon 1 S1 ~more of a point and shoot. Canon makes a great product and is ideal for many uses. They excel at wedding style photography and creative photography but the night still belongs to Nikon even when sensor size is compared. Of course the Nikon D3X is great for everything, IMHO of course.
Hmm. Come to think of it, I’ve never ridden at night. Now that’s a new adventure I must get ticked off. Thanks for the prompt!
BTW, what headlight do you have on your Vespa? It shines nicely bright. Do you have the Angel Eyes? I have looked at them for my Vespa. I would ride at night more if I had a brighter ~can see them~ headlamp. The one I have is OK for them seeing me but a wider, brighter range would be nice.
Your ordinary trip to the store resulted in some great pictures. I always carry a camera with me on my motorcycle but riding the same roads frequently, I forget to stop and capture the moment. Your post reminded me that even the usual roads can result in some beautiful photos. Thanks.
Limited culinary skills? So where is your dear wife these evenings?
Leaving you alone and without proper nourishment!
And Junior, how does he get fed, or is he a better cook than you?
A can of mushrooms indeed!
And have just now sold all of my Nikon gear save for my F100 film camera. Can only think that it is not film that is dead, rather the desire to do photography.
Have replaced the Nikon with a new Fujifil X-T1 just because of the lesser weight factor Nikon seems to have lost their way when it comes to photography. For the first time in thirty years, no Nikon items in the camera bag.
I tend to agree with you about them losing their way of late. too many bells and whistles are being added now. No camera can do it all, every time. Stills, Video, Blast shots, GPS, Tracking, Networking and the list goes on. Other than the Nikon 1S1, a little basic point-n-shoot style, I just can’t see the need to trade up from my Nikon D2XS. Way old by many standards but few if any problems ever. I do miss shooting film though…aww those were the glory days! I just can’t afford to do it anymore. Those who can are lucky indeed!