Night Photography Archives - Page 19 of 36

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016

Deep Blue Sea

This was the scene as night descended on the Fort DeSoto fishing pier. I can never get enough of this place and will probably keep coming back here again and again. I took this as the sky turned from blue to black and the mood and scene changed by the minute. My perspective is towards the West which means it looks out into the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the direction the cargo and cruise ships take when leaving Tampa.

I like the idea of looking out to an infinity of space. I think it plays a bit of havoc with my mind since I can never fully appreciate the size and mass of things like oceans, but then maybe I’m not meant to. Suffice to say its food for thought, forever an enigma.

Piers or old bridges that have become piers are used by fishermen at all hours of the night here in Florida. Right now it seems we’re in a good fishing season because I’m seeing a lot of people with fish in their buckets or on their lines. Getting outside on a warm night with a fishing pole is probably the closest thing to heaven for many who live or visit here. Myself, I’m just happy to take pictures of the scenes, thats my form of heaven, that and the deep blue bottomless sea.

More images of piers from the gallery

April 12, 2016April 12, 2016

Castle Hallway

The Banff Spring Hotel in Alberta is one of the more amazing places I’ve stayed at. It was built to resemble a Scottish castle as it sits within the majestic landscape of the Canadian Rockies. The inside spares no detail and I spent hours walking the hallways taking pictures of the architecture.

We started in Jasper and drove down the Columbia Ice Fields Parkway which is probably the most scenic highway on the planet. Everything about this area is so beautiful that you gladly forget the world you came from, at least I did. I am glad I took a ton of pictures to remind me of that trip. I’ve been itching to go back ever since.

See more from the Canadian Gallery

This is a tricky image produce. The hallways were basically dark except for the lamps along the way. I ended up combining five different exposures in AuroraHDR Pro to bring out all of the shadows without blowing out the highlights. I then processed in Tonality Pro for monochrome and then back in AuroraHDR for some finishing touches like radiance and glow. I never know how the image will turn out and I ended up doing about three versions, in the end I preferred the monochrome. It seems to be a good balance of all the detailed aspects of thus scene. Now with all that behind me, time to start thinking about a plan to come back here.

More images of interesting architecture from the gallery

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

Simple Bridge

This is one of two bridges that connects Bradenton to Palmetto. I live in Palmetto which is a small town so I take a lot of photos of, on and around these bridges. Bridges are a persistent theme with me as I’m sure you already know. To get these long exposures at night I use a tripod to hold the camera steady while the cars drive past creating long ribbons of light. In this case it was a thirteen-second exposure. Normally I’m freezing an instant of time however in this case thirteen-seconds. Freezing time is a funny concept, but don’t think too deeply about it, I wasn’t really going anywhere.

Back to the bridge, I said there was two bridges, but this was taken from a third bridge. It was the original bridge that crossed the river and was built maybe a hundred years ago, it now serves as a fishing pier. What’s left of this original bridge stretches about a half mile into the river so it allows this close perspective which might have required a boat.

my night gallery on flickr

Urban landscapes are interesting to me, especially when I can portray a simplified scene like this. Shooting at night helps remove some of the distractions, processing in monochrome simplifies it even more. I also like how the pilings are a repeating pattern below the lit surface. There is some kind of message of strength in there I think, maybe. Again, let’s not get too deep, this is a small town and this is a simple bridge. End of story.

more bridge images from the gallery

April 7, 2016April 7, 2016

Home Ice

In the center of downtown Vancouver is an Ice rink at Robson Square. At night it’s an awesome place to hang out, there are food trucks all over and people come to shop, eat and just have fun. The lights on the rink are constantly changing colors so even if you don’t skate its pretty cool just to look at. Of course if you really want to see skating you should head over to the arena a few blocks away to watch the Canucks on home ice, but I digress.

Actually, regarding that, I just thought of something. Everyone knows how much Canadians love hockey. But if you want to see the local NHL team play on home ice it could cost you an arm and a leg and, they’re usually sold out. Canadians are serious about hockey, everybody knows that. The cheaper option is to come downtown and watch the game at a bar or, …something a little less obvious. I live in Tampa which is home of the Lightning, another NHL team. People like hockey down here also but not nearly as much as Canadians. So, if you’re a Canadian and you come to Florida you can get a ticket to see your team playing an away game for about twenty-five bucks. Big difference, eh?

One Foot in Another World

This is the cargo dock in Vancouver Harbour. I’m standing at Canada Place facing east towards Burnaby. Half of this photo is a painting of sorts. I’m not really a painter but all of the reflections are my own doing, an example of an idea I get and then working to bring it out. I do it for no other reason than I get a enjoyment from it. The waters of Vancouver Harbour are not nearly this glassy, but that doesn’t stop me from imagining what it would look like if they were.

Other “paintography” images from the gallery

This looks almost like a lake with fresh water. But then there would not be such big cargo docs. Mr. Rational says things don’t make sense and deconstructs the scene. However in the world of my imagination I get to mix things up a bit and play what-if scenarios.

In fact the waters of this bay are really clean, especially for a port with so much shipping. It’s not uncommon to see otters and seals swimming about. Compared to other port cities this is probably one of the cleanest. Maybe that’s where I got the idea from. I’ll take it up notch and make it appear like a lake. One thing is for sure, this is the only image like this you’ll see because it has one foot in reality and one in my imagination.

March 21, 2016

Invisible Rain

This is a section of Science World in Vancouver BC near the subway, people walk along here all hours of day or night. I have no idea where they go so early on a weekend. Maybe to work in the shops. More likely they wondered what I was doing out so early with a camera.

When I’m home I don’t go out in the rain, but when I come here I don’t mind. Funny how my brain works. Rain is good for photography and I never regret going out in it with a camera.

More night images from the gallery

Last night I was crossing a bridge back home in Florida and I was behind a big semi rig. The trailer had the name of the company but what I remembered was the city, Vancouver WA. Just north of Portland, that rig was a long way from home. It’s interesting how many cities have the same name. Ontario Canada has a couple of their own, Paris and London. Maybe they started as tributes. If a city did that now would they get sued for copywriter infringement?

The dark Vancouver mornings of January bring rain so regularly that it becomes invisible. I think people pay it little attention. It reminds me of living next to railroad tracks as a teenager, the first night it rattled my bones but after a while the trains just faded into the background. Isn’t it amazing what we become accustom to? Seems we only notice things that we consider unusual, but when they become normal they fade and recede into almost nothing.

March 16, 2016March 16, 2016

Victoria’s Silhouette

The Victoria’s Secret store in Vancouver has these big billowy pink satin windows. Because I’m using a Sony A7R2, I cranked up the ISO to 10000 and still was able to handhold street shots like this. I was shooting in aperture priority and this image ended up having a shutter speed of 1/1000. That’s impressive when you think about the opportunities it opens up for low light street photography. I like doing street photography, but doing it at night is like another world.

More images from the street photography gallery

I am not so bold when taking pictures of people on the street, I’m really quite furtive and do my best to not attract attention. In a busy area a person with a camera does not stand out. Having the technology that allows me too be quick at night is an advantage over what was even possible a few years ago.

This was taken with a telephoto at 31mm, so I was fairly close, just at the edge of the sidewalk where people were walking in front of the window. In the last few months a few prime lenses have become available that allow wide open apertures which come in handy for scenes like this. I take a prime, but I find that when I have a zoom I use it more. I should just try leaving the big boy at home and using just the prime for a few days.

March 14, 2016

Bastaix

Here is another shot from the evening I walked around in the Ribera district of Barcelona. This is in front of a small restaurant called Bastiax which is just opposite the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar. I didn’t eat here but I made a mental note to come back and try it out. I just looked it up on Google and the ratings are pretty good, here’s the link: https://goo.gl/Hp8qdH

More photos from my urban exploration collection

In fact I began touring the area with Google maps and there are a lot of highly rated eateries around here. That was my impression when I was here but this just confirms that I’m not the only one. I may have to pop back over for a few days to hang around this area and get another infusion of the Barcelona atmosphere soon.

This was late on a Thursday night and it seems the area really gets going after about 10pm. There are ancient street lights and torches which together with the narrow streets gives the place a feel you can only find in Europe. There were people walking, musicians playing and generally just a good feeling permeated the whole area. That could just have been me but I think it too was felt by everyone around.

March 9, 2016March 10, 2016

In the Next Life

This is a I275 rest stop near Tampa just before the Skyway bridge. Its one of the most scenic highway stops in the state, especially at sunset. Truckers know this well as I see them all lined on break with this scene out their windscreens. Moments like this, especially at dusk, have me longing for the open road; next life perhaps.

Other images of or near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

In this life I’m a software architect by day and a photographer by night. It keeps me home yet longing for the road. I spend more time pining for a journey than the comfort of home. If I was a trucker it would be the opposite, longing for home on long lonely highways. The best solution for me is to live in the moment, be thankful for what I have. I am thankful for what I have, but in my next life, …

Speaking of the next life, if you could choose to come back as an animal, what would it be? I have so many ideas it would be hard to choose. Living here in Florida I’d want to be an Eagle or Osprey, I like the thought of flying high and surveying the landscape, although I’m not sure about eating my prey while it’s still alive. Another idea; my own pet dog, his name is Wiggles, he gets a tonne of love and has a good life. But he is a rescue, and I wouldn’t want to go through the abuse he did before we got him. On second thought, I guess I’m happy just being me for now.

March 8, 2016March 8, 2016

Bay Area Lights

This is a long exposure of the San Francisco Bay Bridge I took last year. I was with about three hundred people on a Trey Ratcliff photowalk. The problem with me and photowalks is that I’m a straggler. I see so many things that I want to take pictures of that I end up at the back of the pack, I can’t seem to keep up.

Click here to see the California Gallery

This is one of many thirty-second exposures I did while standing here with a tripod. If you do the math that puts me in this spot for about ten minutes. By the time I had enough presence of mind to look up the end of the pack was hundreds of yards down the road. Time to run.

Now, many months later, I just happened to look at this and remember that evening. I met many people and had a blast. Also I just noticed the V-shaped light in the distance between the two leading lines. I don’t recall seeing it that night. Anyway, now this is one of my favorite shots from the photowalk.