The Mackinac Bridge at Night

As I said in one of my posts over the weekend, I hit 400,000 visits to my blog.  I'm not sure how many visitors that translates to but I'm sure it is a few.  Based on the followers directly on here and followers in my facebook group, I know that I have a fair amount of regular viewers.  Based on other things, I know that I have quite a few people that reach here through searches.  I hope that a few of those people become regulars.

I wanted to do something to celebrate this milestone on my blog and I figured that since the Mackinac Bridge figures prominently here, I would start there and work my way around my normal stomping grounds in the Upper Peninsula.

 I left right after work on Friday which means that I got to Mackinaw City at night.  I knew this would be the case, so I brought my tripod with me.  Besides, I like night shots...especially night shots of the Bridge.  I've tried the normal way of taking Bridge pictures by using a flash but that doesn't work.  so I had to use the old fashioned way of tripod and long exposures.  I hope that you like them.

 Sadly, I need to get a new tripod as it seems that I left it in my hotel room.  While I'm in the process of doing that, I also need to get a cable release to avoid some of the motion blur that you see in this picture.

 Still, I think these turned out pretty well.  I kind of wish they still had the multicolored lights but oh well.

 Then I tried to have some pictures stretched out.

 With even longer exposures.  I like the way the truck lights stretch across a large chunk of the bridge.

 As I was taking the last picture, I noticed the faint outline of the Big Dipper.  So I bumped the exposure a little highter in the hopes that it would be a little more visible.  Consequently, I do like the result.

So then I moved to my other spot and tried again.  I think I like this one even better.

What do you think?