Category Archives: Night-time

Cameras, Color, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Washington DC

Panoramas with a Rolleiflex

July 13, 2014 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

A long time ago, I saw this interesting little gadget sitting in the used equipment case at my local camera store. It was a panorama adapter for Rolleiflex cameras that enabled you to shoot up to a 360-degree panorama on a single roll. It has a built-in bubble level (which is absolutely critical). You put the camera on top, then focus and compose as normal. Once you have the focus and exposure set, you don’t change them (this is also critical). Take the first exposure, then push in the little locking lever, rotate the camera to the next increment on the dial, and take the next picture, and so on until you have shot as many frames as you want to shoot. It is critical to maintain focus and exposure as set on the original frame because changing focus will mean that things in one frame will not be in exactly the same proportion as they were in the previous frame,therefore they will not blend seamlessly. Ditto for exposure – if you change the exposure from frame to frame, ESPECIALLY if you are shooting color film, you’ll never be able to match the frames.

Done right, you get this:

It isn’t perfect because with the long exposures (45-90 seconds each – I forget which I used, but as you can see they’re all exactly the same) traffic patterns don’t flow through the underpass during all three exposures, and the lens flare from the street light in the middle picture doesn’t carry over to the same degree in the left picture, thanks to the lens hood. But you have to look at it to see the three frames separately.

If things aren’t perfect, then you end up with:

While the alignment is pretty close, the color is off a bit on each frame. This took quite a bit of Photoshoppery to get it to match as well as it does. I kind of expected this outcome when trying this shot because I knew the traffic patterns wouldn’t line up from frame to frame, and wanted to see how it would turn out. I think it worked well enough as an effect, but I’m on the fence as to whether I’d try it again.

If you don’t have everything perfectly level, you get:

Also lots of Photoshoppery went into getting the colors and density to match from frame to frame. This one has been rotated and cropped to get it MORE level, but you can see between the oval of the fountain and the overall tilt, it wasn’t level and square enough.

And last but not least, another experiment with disjointed traffic flow around Dupont Circle.

Another part of this experiment was to see how Kodak Ektar 100 does with long night exposures. My previous (and still) favorite for night photos is Portra 160. While Ektar hasn’t dethroned Portra for this purpose, it proves it can stand on its own and I don’t need to carry multiple emulsions with me when I travel to cover every scenario. I can bring a few rolls of Portra 800 for when I need to shoot hand-held in low light, and the Ektar 100 for everything else.

Cameras, Color, DC Cityscapes, Large Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Washington DC

New exhibit and upcoming reception

April 7, 2014 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

I have eight of my color night photos up on the wall as part of a group show of large format photographs at the River Road Unitarian Church. The show will be hanging through Sunday May 4, when we (the four of us artists in the show) will have a take-down party from 3-5pm. If you can’t make it to the take-down party, feel free to drop by the church and ask to see the show any time during their operating hours:

In addition to the usual Sunday fellowship hours, the exhibit can be viewed Monday-Friday 10 am-4 pm in the Fellowship Hall, River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 6301 River Road, Bethesda, MD. Please call the RRUUC office (301-229-0400) before going there to check that no conflicting activity is scheduled when you want to view the exhibit.

River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation

Amazingly enough, the RRUUC’s exhibition schedule is so popular we (the large format camera club I belong to) had to book this show almost a year in advance.

Cameras, Color, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Washington DC

Keeping With the Snow Theme

January 22, 2014 dcphotoartist 2 Comments

… but this time in color. I caught the sunrise reflecting on the windows of the houses at the top of my alley, and tinting the sky.

That inspired me to set back up at twilight and take this version, with the sky gone deep blue but not yet black.

Just so you know, to take these photos I had to set up my tripod in the bathtub and then stand on the rim of the bathtub to be able to compose these shots. The things I do for my readers 😀

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Travel

Paris in October – part 33 – Chalon-sur-Saone, at night

December 18, 2013 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

I know, Chalon-sur-Saone is NOT in Paris. It is in fact several hundred kilometers from Paris, and about 120 kilometers from the Swiss border, on the river Saone, which feeds the Rhone. I stayed at the Hotel St.Georges, which is immediately adjacent to the train station. It was the perfect location in town for me because of my travel schedule. It had been rainy off and on the duration of my visit to Chalon. I got lucky when it stopped raining after dinner long enough for me to step out on my balcony and take some night photos. If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time you know I like taking night photos- I think they’re particularly poetic with their distorted colors and blurred motion.

Here is the view of the hotel marquee from the balcony of my room. The train station is in the background.

St Georges Hotel Marquee, Railway Station

A view up the Avenue Jean Jaures from my balcony. In the far background on the avenue you can start to see the lights of a traveling carnival that was set up in town.

Avenue Jean Jaures, St. Georges Hotel, Night

A different view of the plaza in front of the hotel. Across the plaza is the British Pub-style restaurant where I had lunch right after my arrival. The food was excellent and cheap (10 euros for a 3-course lunch!), but it cemented in my mind that the French don’t quite know what to do with pasta – the veal cutlet was delicious, but the pasta that accompanied it was bare, and the marinara sauce came in a dipping cup more appropriate for salad dressing on the side rather than an integral part of a pasta dish.

The corner across the street is the Maitre Pierre restaurant, which never seemed busy, and two doors up the Avenue Jean Jaures is an Indian restaurant.

A close-up view of the Maitre Pierre restaurant.

Photo-geek techie note, for those who care: shot with my Rolleiflex 2.8E, using Kodak Ektar 100. I may have said this before, but my favorite film for night photography is Portra 160. I love the way it handles mixed lighting and the extreme contrast you get at night. When I came to Chalon, I wasn’t expecting to do any night photography, so I left all the Portra in Paris, and all I had for color was Ektar 100. You can see from these photos that if that suddenly became my only option for color night photography, I wouldn’t be mad. It’s not a case of not liking Ektar for night photography, just liking Portra more.

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Travel

October in Paris – part 15 – A few more night photos

November 25, 2013 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

The Ilot Vache restaurant is on the corner of the Rue St.Louis en l’Ile and the Rue des Deux Ponts, which more or less bisects the Ile St. Louis into east and west halves. The Ile St. Louis was once actually two separate islands, one of which was the Ilot Vache (little cow island) because it was used as pastureland for Parisian cows. With the rapid growth of the city’s population in the 15th century, there was such a demand for more prime real estate that the two islands were merged into one and developed as residential space. Thus the name of the restaurant. The Rue des Deux Ponts roughly demarcates where the two islands were split. My dad and I ate dinner at L’Ilot Vache one night, and the food was quite good, even if the dining room was a bit crowded.

L'Ilot Vache Restaurant — L’Ilot Vache Restaurant

I managed to catch a pair of diners in the window of the restaurant.

Diners, L'Ilot Vache, Night — Diners, L’Ilot Vache, Night

This is one case where I broke my normal rule of shooting night photos with Portra 160 – these two were done on Ektar 100. I suspect that I had just a couple frames left on the roll of Ektar that was loaded in the camera when I set out to do my night shots, so I finished them off and then switched over to Portra for the rest of the evening.

Cameras, Color, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Travel

October in Paris – part 14 – Paris by Night

November 25, 2013 dcphotoartist 2 Comments

Ok, it’s far from a comprehensive survey of the city by night, but whaddya want, I only had a single night for night shooting, so I confined myself to where I could walk to from my apartment.

One of the great things about where we (my father and I) stayed was the fact we were in walking distance of just about everything, from the subway to all the historical buildings and neighborhoods. Notre Dame was a stone’s throw away, across the bridge. Here is the rear view from the approach I took over the Pont St. Louis.

The front facade is fully illuminated at night, and they have built a set of large risers in the plaza in front that if nothing else serve as a great camera platform for photographing the towers. The night I was out shooting was the night of the full moon, so I got lucky and was able to get this shot of the tower and the moon.

Another view of the towers, from a side street. It had been raining that evening, so the streets were wet giving them that Hollywood movie look.

Another shot of the full moon, over a grand Hotel (Hotel in the Parisian sense of grand city residence/townhouse as opposed to place-where-you-rent-a-room-by-the-night) on the Ile de la Cite.

The Pont St. Louis, slick with rain. This is the bridge that connects the Ile St. Louis with the Ile de la Cite.

A view of the Hotel de Ville (Paris’ City Hall) from across the Seine. The white line at the river level is created by the lights of a passing river tour boat that has flood lights on the roof to illuminate the buildings on the quays as it passes. I don’t envy the people whose apartments face the river because of that, even if the boat tours do stop sometime between 9 and 10 pm.

Another view of the bridges across the Seine. In the background on the left you can see a rather castle-like building which is La Monnaie, the old French Mint where they used to make coins.

The last bridge of today’s program is the Pont Louis Phillippe, which connects the end of the Ile St. Louis to the north bank of the Seine. The bridge I used every day to get to and from the subway was the Pont Marie, which abuts the middle of the Ile St. Louis. I wanted to get a view of the bridges from water level, so I went down a set of steps on the quayside of the Ile de la Cite and set up my tripod at the very bottom – you can see from the facing set of steps they descend all the way into the water (I did not test how far down they go, as I had no desire to get wet, especially at this time of year).

The St. Regis cafe has a view of the Pont St. Louis. Notre Dame itself is hidden by the buildings across the bridge. On my excursion, I saw people sitting outside the cafe all evening – I returned home at nearly midnight and there were people still outside the cafe as it was closing up.

Here’s a look into the courtyard of one of the hotels on the Rue St. Louis en l’Ile, at number 51. I looked through the doorway, which had always been closed when I walked by in the daytime, and saw the light on in the library window on the second floor, and I just had to take that picture. I love libraries (I’m sitting in one as I type this, my modest personal library of 2000 or so books), so seeing in to one had a rather Proustian effect on me.

Hotel Courtyard, 51 Rue St. Louis en L'Ile, Night — Hotel Courtyard, 51 Rue St. Louis en L’Ile, Night

I shot all these on Kodak Portra 160 because I like how it responds to nighttime color better than Ektar. It has a less contrasty look which is good for night because night scenes are inherently contrastier than daytime scenes, and it handles overexposure better than Ektar.

Color, News/Announcements, Night-time, Photography, Washington DC

PhotoSlam 2013 – part of FotoWeek DC 2013

November 9, 2013 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

I submitted six images to PhotoSlam, one of the events of FotoWeekDC 2013, and have been accepted! PhotoSlam is like a poetry slam, but with photos. Photographers put their work up on a projector screen, and the audience votes. PhotoSlam is curated, so it’s not just show up with your thumb drive and take a turn – you have to submit your five piece portfolio in advance, plus a single “best-of” image. The prize is a show of your work at PhotoWorks next fall. PhotoSlam will be held at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V Streets NW on Sunday, November 10. The show starts at 8pm, but get there early as the room fills FAST (it is recommended that you be in line at 7:30). There is a requested $15 donation at the door. Please come out and support me if you can make it, I’d love to see you all there. And if you do come, please let me know! For those who can’t make it, I’ll be showing work from the DC at Night series that’s (still!) up on the wall at Mad Momo’s Restaurant.

And the “best of” single image that I’m submitting is:

Cameras, Color, Digital cameras, Night-time, Photography, Washington DC

Night Shots – Playing in Traffic

July 18, 2013 dcphotoartist 2 Comments

I was coming home from class out at Glen Echo, and had the 5D in the front seat with me. I was feeling bored sitting at traffic lights, and decided to play with long time exposures.

Street Crossing - At the Light — Street Crossing – At the Light

This first one was hand-held, balanced on the steering wheel, while waiting at the light. The exposure is long enough that only the reflectors in the bike wheels, lit by my headlights, and the legs of pedestrians who passed through their beams, recorded.

Following Traffic #3 - Traffic Circle — Following Traffic #3 – Traffic Circle

I realize taking these shots was a bit insane, but I wanted to see what I could get with motion blur of the buildings and oncoming lights, while keeping the vehicle I was following sharp. The following bit didn’t work so well (for that I need some kind of brace I can clamp to the center console), but I think the results are pretty darned cool anyway.

Panning - Pedestrian Crossing #1 — Panning – Pedestrian Crossing #1

Panning - Pedestrian Crossing #2 — Panning – Pedestrian Crossing #2

Two more shots from stoplights, watching pedestrians cross. In these cases, though, I was aiming for following the pedestrians. These would have been good candidates for second-curtain flash, but I was in the car, driving, and I don’t have a convertible to hold the flash out the top. So more cool experiments result. And all the more justification for getting a convertible!

Cameras, Color, DC Cityscapes, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Travel, Washington DC

The Colors of Twilight in DC

July 5, 2013 dcphotoartist Leave a comment

This is an exploration of twilight into dusk in and around the 14th Street and U Street corridors in Northwest Washington DC. All these shots were taken in the same evening, and are within walking distance of one another (although in the name of time efficiency I drove from one area to the other so I wouldn’t lose the last light in the sky).

Nellies is a gay sports bar (betcha never thought you’d hear THAT particular combination!) at the corner of 9th and U Street and Florida Avenue (U Street turns into Florida Avenue at 9th). I’ve driven by hundreds of times and always thought about photographing their lights, specifically the “OPEN” arrow on the corner. The night I started this project, I decided to shoot the building from two different angles, one to capture the general ambiance of the intersection, the other to specifically address the OPEN sign.

Around the corner from Nellies is this abandoned warehouse which has some really wild and cool and somewhat disturbing graffiti on it. I shot some of this graffiti through the chain link fence around the side lot. The disturbing piece I intentionally cropped out of the shot, as it is the nude lower half of a female body that appears to have been severed from its torso.

Over on 14th Street, we have had an explosion of new restaurants in the last five years, with a huge spate in the last year alone. Rice Restuarant is arguably the best Thai restaurant in DC, and certainly the most innovative. A good friend of mine opened it gosh, maybe ten years ago, virtually pioneering the restaurant boom in the neighborhood. Now next door to Rice is Ghibellina, an Italian joint that opened this year, and next door to that is Pearl Dive, an oyster bar, which opened perhaps 2 years ago. Le Diplomate is a French bistro across the street in what was originally a car dealership in the 1920s, then became a laundromat. Le Diplomate also opened earlier this year.

At the intersection of 14th and Q Streets, I pointed my camera south on 14th to try and capture the energy of the neighborhood, through the traffic, the lights, the construction boom represented by the crane, and the people on the sidewalks.

Here is a second version of the shot, a longer exposure, that captures the car sitting at the traffic light, then traffic taking off when the light changed. The funky stuff in the sky is a combination of reflections of the tail-lights and head-lights of the cars reflecting off the clouds and lens flare caused by the lights directly shining into the lens.

I’m not sure if I like this one well enough to keep it or if some other night I go back and try to re-shoot it. Feedback welcomed. All shots, as is becoming normal to say now, were taken with my Rolleiflex 2.8E, on Kodak Ektar 100 film. This was in part an experiment to see how well Ektar would fare against Portra 160 as a low-light film. I’ve loved Portra as a low-light film for its ability to handle mixed lighting conditions. I’d say this put to rest any thoughts of Ektar 100 being inferior- it does look different, to be sure, but I’d say it did a pretty darned good job. I think I might even prefer it in some cases.

Cameras, Color, Digital cameras, Medium Format Cameras, Night-time, Photography, Travel

Philadelphia, New Year’s Eve

January 5, 2013 dcphotoartist 1 Comment

Some more of my night photography. I went to Philadelphia for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day this year. I wanted to see the Mummers’ Day Parade on New Years Day, which is a uniquely Philadelphia tradition. The best way to describe it for those who’ve never been is to say that it’s a bit like a PG-13 Mardi Gras (it gets the PG-13 for the alcohol consumption and the occasional bawdy reference in some signage). I’ll post my photos of the parade later – I still have several rolls of negatives to scan, plus a couple hundred digital images to edit before that’s ready. I went out on New Year’s Eve to have dinner, and dragged the Rollei along with me because I had seen the lights in Franklin Square Park on my cab ride from the train station to my hotel. I also thought about trying to get photos of the fireworks with Independence Hall in the foreground, but the buildings between the Hall and the river where the fireworks launch are too tall and you can’t see them. But I got my good night shot of Independence Hall anyway, so that’s my lead-off photo for this post.

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