Space Needle at Night

Took this one from my hotel room when I was in Seattle. I was using aperture priority mode and I dialed in -2/3 EV exposure compensation to keep the color in the sky. On my first try, I handheld the camera with auto ISO. That one came out well, but the sky was really noisy due to the high ISO selected by the camera. A nighttime shot like this will take you right the limits of a small image sensor like the one in my X20. I wanted to dial down the ISO but there was no way I could handhold the camera with the slow shutter speed that would result. I also didn't have a tripod, so I dialed down the ISO and held the camera on the railing of the teeny-tiny balcony. Came out pretty well.