I can't seem to figure out how to make my camera cooperate. I put it in Manual mode and set it up for a long exposure, turn the lights off and click...but without the focus lock (and it can't do that in the dark with no subject, I get a blurred mess if I get anything at all. Now, if I can get a focus lock with the lights on and be close enough to the light switch to turn it off and continue to keep my finger on the camera button to hold the lock in place while I do that and not jiggle the tripod, then get back in place, click and jump for my light for "painting" with...well that might work... if I'm Houdini.  any suggestions? Its a high end point and shoot so it isn't built primarily for manual operation and I think that is the biggest problem I have with it. Most of the time I'm in semi-manual modes.

Flannel Knight's Photos
MrsLubner
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______________________
"It please me to take amateur photographs of my garden,
and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look
professional."
                                          Robert Brault