On my way south through Waxhaw, North Carolina, last night in the haze and fog, I pulled to the side of the road. I had seen the orange glow of the street lamp posts lit before and had considered shooting them.

I started with my camera on Auto, then moved to Auto Aperture, then Auto Shutter. I finally found more control in Manual. Starting with a low ISO 100-200, adjusting the shutter speed, adjusting the F-stop, etc. Then trying ISO 12800 and settling on ISO 3200, while changing those other settings.

After returning home, I discovered my best shots to be at ISO 3200, Exposure 1/10, and F-stop 4.5. High ISO numbers with street lights, the image became grainy. I could see that graininess on my LCD screen and I thought the lens had fogged over so I was using a lens cleaner to wipe it off, which wasn’t working.

After 10 minutes and 33 shots, I found a good one in the collection after going through all of them at the house. I didn’t edit these photos. I did shoot in RAW and JPG, so I might go back to work the RAW and see what else will come out of them.