The City At Night

Often much cooler than the city by day. Often best seen within an hour of sundown when there is still some colour in the sky.

Underexposed?

According to the meter? Yes. But at the correct exposure this would be nothing interesting.

Here Comes The Sun

The sun is not in this image. But you know where it is, don't you?

Scale

Something of known size (person, car, house) can really help to illustrate the size of something else in the frame whose scale might be otherwise ambiguous.

Yes, those are two people. One with a red hat.

Faults Or Features

Here you can see some lens effects. One is "ghosting" lens flare. These are the coloured round shapes in the picture. The other is "veiling" lens flare. This is the cause of the overall lightening of the image as if looking through a white veil. These are effects that lenses can exhibit if there is a strong light source (like the sun) in or near the edge of the picture. Better lenses exhibit these effects less and "user additions" (like uncoated filters) can worsen them.

Like "weeds", however, "defects" are a matter of perspective and of taste. Sometimes -- just like anything else seen in pictures but not seen with our naked eye -- they can be used to artistic effect.

A River Runs Through It

Onion Creek.