Who says we can't shoot at night?  Because we don't see well at night does not mean that the camera can't.  Night shooting can be a lot of fun and yield some nice results.  Night shooting obviously means very low light which necessitates a tripod.  There are three difficulties inherent in night shooting:

• Focus - the light can be so low that you cannot see well enough through the view finder to focus.  Live view does not really help when it is dark.  Take a strong flashlight with and shine it on the spot where you want to focus.  Now your camera can focus.  Turn off your light and shoot.
• Composition - the light can be so low that you cannot see well enough to compose.  Your flashlight may help once again.
• Exposure - night shots are almost always shot at shutter speeds longer than 30 seconds.  This also happens to be the point where your light meter does not indicate beyond.  I have actually written Canon and asked them to make it go longer; but why would they listen to me?  So we set the camera on B (bulb), which means we can leave the shutter open as long as we want. However, how do you know how long to leave it open if your light meter does not indicate anything beyond 30 seconds?  Up your ISO until your light meter indicates proper exposure.  Now turn it back to what you want to shoot at counting every "Stop" (halving of ISO).  Once you know how many "Stops" you set it lower go to your shutter speed and double your shutter speed for every "Stop".  Now you know how long to keep open your shutter speed.  If it is so dark that your highest ISO setting still does not indicate a proper exposure just do the same with your F.Stop (open it up).

          The following shot was shot deep into the night.  You can see the stars in the sky.  The rainbow is actually a Moon bow (caused by the moon's light).

Yosemite Falls at Night           There are three favorite subjects for night shooting.

• Anything with the "Milky Way" in the background
• Anything with light painting.  Light painting is where you illuminate your subject by painting it with a light source.  This is a lot of fun.
• Cityscapes.  Cityscapes are best shot just when it turns dark.  Waiting a bit too long makes the sky too dark.

          Here is an example of a cityscape.

Go try shooting at night.  Get something different.