Shots in the dark

So... I woke up this morning, looked out the window and thought "Great, it's raining." Then I thought "GREAT, IT'S RAINING!!!" I jumped up, grabbed my camera, and ran out onto the back deck to see if I could catch some interesting shots. And the results were... okay. Nothing too special, but hey, I'm learning. (Edit: I just looked at this shot again, and noticed that the red bricks kind of lead to the focal point. I wish I could say that I did it on purpose.)

18mm
1/40 sec
f / 3.5
ISO 250

I was a bit frustrated because I was trying to catch the raindrops, but I think the drops were too small. However, I was able to catch some of the rain splashing off of the railing, which I thought was pretty cool.

55mm
1/100 sec
f / 8.0
ISO 1600

Then I tried to catch some of the rain dripping off of the railing and found this little web between the posts. I love the framing, I just wish there was a spider there to make it less boring.

55mm
1/100 sec
f / 5.6
ISO 320

After about 30 min of shooting, I had to get ready for work. When I got home, I decided I would walk to the corner of my street to try some night shooting and I must say, I found it much easier to get decent looks when I wasn't dealing with the sun. In this shot, I thought it was cool that there was an American flag right behind a sign for Constitution Drive. I tried freezing the flag, but I couldn't get it to expose well enough without getting a significant amount of grain. If you look at the flag pole, there is a light pointed at the flag, but unfortunately, it isn't turned on. I'm also not crazy about the sky, but all in all, I think it is a decent enough shot. I might try it again during the day to see if I can get a better sky.

18mm
1/10 sec
f / 3.5
ISO 6400

This street is notorious for speeders late at night, so I thought I might try to catch some cars driving by the speed sign at a slow shutter speed to show the the tail lights of the cars streaking by. Unfortunately, there wasn't much traffic and I was shooting handheld, so everything I tried over 1 sec turned out blurry. And that sky is hideous.

18mm
1.0 sec
f / 3.5
ISO 800

 For this shot, I cranked up the ISO to get some grain because I felt like it would add to the Sharpie grafitti's "grittiness." I wanted to get some starburst off the lights, but my shooting position wasn't stable at all so I couldn't really close the aperture any. Still, I have to say that I kind of like the way this one turned out.

18mm
1/30 sec
f / 3.5
ISO 6400

And here is my favorite shot of the day. I wish I could have got more cars in the shot, and I have a few other shots with more cars, but I really like that tail light streak, and it leads right to the part of the sign that says "DON'T CROSS." Eventually I will crop the right side of the picture, but right now I'm being lazy.

18mm
1/4 sec
f / 3.5
ISO 1250

So, after having my T3i for almost a week, I finally get some shots that I'm really excited about, and give me a glimpse of what I can do with some more time behind the lens. I'm really excited about the journey ahead of me. Feel free to tell me which shots you like and dislike, and if you have any tips, please share them.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Shooting!!!

P.S.
One of my good friends loves (read: hates) spiders, so i decided to retouch one of the photos just for him. Enjoy, Brandon!!