I spent some time last night out on Mill Avenue with a few other photographers. We went out to try and challenge ourselves with things we don't normally do, and in this case we tried low light street photography. Challenging is an understatement. Shooting at f/1.8 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 1250 just to try and get an exposure is very tough. Lighting is a mixture of tungten from the Christmas tree lights, florescent shop lighting spilling into the street, and the headlights of passing cars. Makes white balancing a tough job for sure!
Mill avenue is kinda of a interesting place. It is right next to Arizona State University, and is in the heart of one of the more "progressive" cities. The people it attracts are extremely diverse. You have the college age crowds heading to the bars/clubs, upscale shoppers, general partiers, people visiting Tempe Town lake, and a fairly large homeless/street performers/panhandler contingent as well. It can be a great time, but one needs to be careful as it can get very dangerous. Mill Avenue is pretty well known for some of the violence that takes place there.
