This isn’t the best long exposure night shot you’ll ever see. But this is the best I could do at a freezing temperature (-2 degrees Celsius) in Estes Park, Colorado, just outside our Airbnb rental.

This is the first time I’ve rented a BMW, and it’s also the first time I’ve driven an SUV. I wanted to get some cool pictures of the car at night to accompany a blog post on my car blog.

So I braved the freezing temperature with wind to set up my tripod to begin taking a long exposure shot.

It was pitch dark outside. Those bright light you see on the left aren’t bright at all. Those are low-powered porch lights. I didn’t mind those, but there were chair and table in the frame. So, in pitch dark, I had to move them away. I took another shot, which is the one above, but it still had the chair in frame.

I was frustrated because the shot otherwise wasn’t too bad. But my hands began freezing, as I forgot bringing gloves for this trip. I also started hearing weird animal noises nearby. Remembering of the wildlife that roams around the place, I didn’t dare stay out further.

I did a few rounds of editing on the photo, but I can’t still quite recover it. “It is what it is,” is the only thing I could tell myself. Since on this blog, I’m not looking for print-worthy shots, I figured I might as well post it, forget about it, and move on to the next one.

Here’s a slightly different edit of the photo:

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