Night Photography
Over the years I've been annoyed and amused by all the people who try to take snapshot photos at night. I've always assumed they were wasting time, and in years past, film. But never actually seen any results. I'm finally remembering that I now do carry around a camera, and so one night recently decided to see exactly what some of those photos might look like.
First is a backlit Sawmill eruption without a flash. Except for the moon and its reflection, the view is pretty much black. A similar photo taken from the other direction (as much as the boardwalk allows), was completely black.
Here's the result of turning the flash on. Just as useless, as all I've done is illuminate all the steam and fog that is normally invisible in the dark.
This is a photo of Penta's cone and vents. The hard part is aiming, as until the flash, the screen just shows a black rectangle. But local details are visible, but notice also how the background is already turning into a lighter version of the Sawmill eruption photo.
So it is possible to take close-up photos of features at night, but unless it is to document something weird or unusual, there's not much point.