Night photography

True night photos are tough to do, unless you've got gear - or the know how. There are some easy, cheap tricks anyone can employ, especially if your camera has a flash or flash attachment.

Tripods are relatively inexpensive these days, and there are even some for digital point-and-shoot cameras.

Tonight, though, I forgot mine. Out walking Apollo, I found an interesting looking tree, which I photographed with a flash while holding the camera. This is the result...
What happened? Because it was so dim, I used the flash, then the shutter remained opened long after the flash disappeared. Because I was holding the camera, my breathing moved it - and produced a slightly blurred image where the flash did not reach. If you click on the photo to see a larger version, you'll see that the details on the bark and that dried leaf are pretty sharp - those got most of the light. I kinda like this image. A happy accident.

Here's another shot of the same tree. I opted to tweak the setting so that the light spread on the camera was different (more on that later) and the length of exposure, shorter. Shorter exposure = darker image. But this time, I put the camera on a fencepost and set the self-timer so that my finger would not jar the camera. This resulted in a much sharper, more in-focus image.

Tips:
If you don't have a tripod, place the camera on something stable and solid - fence post, rock, ground, table.
Use the self-timer so that your finger doesn't move the camera when pressing the shutter button
If you're able to, play with the f-stops, iso speeds and the light meter, to try find an ideal balance. It might take a few trial and error attempts before you hit on a good mix.