Flash for fun

25 second exposure, no flash, only illumination is from the house lights.

I quite like the effect the lights in the planter and above the front door give at nighttime, but have often thought I could do something to get a better image.  The first shot in this post was taken with camera on tripod with ISO at 200, a 25 second exposure and aperture at f11.  In no way does this give the effect I see when I come home as the trees to the right are more illuminated ... in this first image they're just a black blob!

A friend from work had mentioned using flash, so, with an energetic son we tried firing the flash at the trees to get a different effect.  We didn't want it to look like daylight, bit we did want more detail in the trees and other parts of the front yard.  Hmm.  Well, perhaps not quite so much as you can pick out in the second shot.  Here you can see I need to tidy up the leaves and other junk that's accumulated after mulching etc.

25 second exposure again, but this time with additional speedlight flashes aimed at the trees and the house.

So which do you prefer?  Haha ... perhaps neither!  What it did do was expend much of that spare energy my son had as a result of him running up and down the driveway firing the flash at the trees.

Interesting for me is that my son doesn't appear in a ny of the shots, yet he was all over the driveway firing the flash at the trees.  You may recall Louis Daguerre's photograph taken in 1838 of a very busy street.  You'd never know it was busy from the photograph as the exposure was so long that moving people didn't have time to register on the image.  Well, all apart from the shoe cleaner and his customer.  So, with a 25 second exposure and an active son it's hardly surprising he doesn't appear on the image.

Click on the images to see them a little larger and perhaps let me know what you think ... and which you prefer.