This was taken at midnight and was a 30 sec exposure with no tripod (wedged onto a gate post). Decided to play around with the kelvin setting on the Canon 30D and discovered that there is a world at midnight I never knew about!

Yeah, I have a couple of these one I used on the homepage of my website: www.clydebeamer.com
This is nice. Obviously, it is a little flat, but still holds a lot of detail.

If I hadn't have read your explaination of the shot I would have said that the shot is too flat - a real lack of contrast - that said it's a nice idea and It's amazing actually how much detail and colour is there given the conditions, but I can't help feeling that it doesn't really work as a photo for me - there's not really alot compositionally happening ... although I find myself wondering what it would look like as b&w?

What a great exercise! I think the more you experiment with this, the better you'll get. Great start.

Then you'll start painting trees with light, and more... I just found the same world recently Craig (vazaar.com/user:Topher/photos/id:13474/) and might be trying to perfect it at your same rate... I like this pic as the start of something more and appreciate the experimentation. Fun.

I really like the detail and color. I too wonder how it would look in b&w.

The muted aspect gives a rather melancholic feel,
I like it because it has an individual personality and atmosphere...not just another techn. perfect picture...reminds of an old masters painting that hasn't been restored...