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"Start by taking your camera and a tripod outside. At night. Take a small flashlight along. Set up your camera on your tripod. Set your camera to manual. Focus your lens to infinity (turn off autofocus). Set your shutter to bulb, or at least a very long exposure. Stand several feet away from the camera, facing it. Use your flashlight to draw shapes. Experiment. You will fail, but you will also succeed. Be safe."

If that advice from an old guidebook on low light photography seems abrupt, consider the terse instructions printed on the back of one of my plastic toy cameras: "Throw away your book and go out!"

While there is something to be said for such simple advice, you may wish to have a little more information about nighttime or low light photography. In addition to the links provided on the right hand side of this page, I started off with these three books:

Night Photography: Finding Your Way In The Dark (by Lance Keimig)
Night And Low Light Photography (by Jill Wasserman)
Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques (by Harold Davis)

The "after hours" open up an entire world of creative possibilities for the photographer. At a time when most people are at home, sitting in front of the TV, you can be outside - in the night - with little more than your camera, your tripod and your imagination. I'm addicted.

I intend to develop this page further (with much more information) but at the moment I would much rather be out shooting and experimenting! Feel free to drop me a note if you know of any other cool sites, resources or books. As with so many things in life, experimental photography in low light conditions is a continuous learning process.