Shutter Mike Photography

The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix does a display of luminarias every December to celebrate the season.  The luminaria has a Spanish and Mexican history and consists of a candle inside of a brown paper sack weighted down with sand.  Traditionally a Christmas decoration in the Southwest, they are said to give a lighted path for Christ.

I used the lowest aperture (f/1.7) on my 50 mm prime lens to capture this night scene without the aid of a tripod.  The ISO was set at 400 due to the low light.  When the image is blown up the camera shake is more evident.  I could have increased my ISO to 800 or 1600 to get a faster shutter speed and gotten more noise or of course used a tripod to reduce the camera shake.