In Maine: Fun with camera during last sunset of vacation

'Tis fun to play.

After all, that's what vacation is for.

On the final night of my Maine stay, I took my camera outside of my parents' house for some experimentation.

I wasn't impressed by the sunset, so I had to do something different to make it look better.

In the first photo, I rotated the camera through the entire 1-second exposure. The axis remains somewhat in focus, as you can see at the upper part of the bench that looks toward the setting sun. The circular blurriness draws the viewer's eye into the subject of the photo, the bench. This also worked well with a portrait of my father, but I'll withhold that photo as a family possession, as I've focused on him enough during my Maine vacation.

On the topic of my father, though: He recommended creating some sort of machine that rotates the camera around a steady axis, instead of using my inaccurate hands. This should keep the center of the image in complete focus. I have no doubt that my father can create such a contraption; he has already put together a mount for his camera that moves it simultaneously with the Earth's rotation to prevent long exposures of the stars from becoming too streaky.

Drill No. 2 was using the flash to blow away the silhouette of the trees in front of the glowing skyline. This gave details to the maple tree and the stand of white birches just along the water's edge.

Man, I should do this stuff in Florida sometime, too.