One of my favorite pastimes is what I like to call "improvised tripoding" with my camera. When taking night shots or dimly lit indoor shots, flash is often either (a) inadequate or (b) inappropriate, or both. In this situation, never prepared with an actual tripod, I like to try to find stationary or nearly-stationary objects on which to balance my camera, in order to enable a steady, long exposure without shakiness and blur. Tabletops and chair arms work well, as do some street signs, windowsills, rocks, and wide fence rails or posts. Sometimes, in more desperate or creative moments ("extreme improvised tripoding"), I will also use tree branches, other people's heads, or the hood of a stranger's car.
Tonight, while ostensibly on an errand to 7-11 to replenish our dangerously low ice cream supply, I decided to take some shots using the aforementioned method. My favorite shot of the evening is below. It is so quintessentially suburban strip mall, it could have been shot in nearly any town in America (in this case, the photo was taken in Fort Lee, New Jersey). My favorite element, though, which I didn't notice until I transfered the photos to my laptop, is the distant manikin in the window, unblinkingly staring back out at the world. There's something wonderfully creepy about it.
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