out of focus/light trails

[Jim D.]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/23546046@N06/2277360690/" title="P2132335 by Jim D., on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2299/2277360690_72e3772864.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="P2132335" /></a>
While i'm satisfied with the light trails, I was wondering why the armstong sign was out of focus. I wasn't concerned about the landscape of the photo,it was merely a light trail experiment. I used a tripod, I thought the sign was in focus. Any thoughts where I went wrong?
exposure:2 sec. aperture:f/5.2 focal lenth:114mm iso:800 camera:olympus E-510

[clockdoc]

Hi Jim,
Were you using autofocus? If so, the camera may have detected the strongest line of contrast from the snowbank and focused farther away than you had planned. Try manual focus and see if that makes a difference as well as using a smaller aperture (f/11 -f/16).

[Jim D.]

Thanks for the tip Lee. After you mentioned it ,I checked out my settings and it was on auto focus. So that makes alot of sense. I'll take note of that,and i'll pay more attention to my aperture.Thanks for your time as well.

Jim D.

[geotography]

Jim D.,

If you like the photo, you certainly could play with cropping off the sign and the pole. It would make for a tight image but it may be interesting.