In the article I wrote on April 12, about wandering in the afternoon on the boardwalk that went along the Fraser River beside the hotel my friend Jo and I stayed in while we attended the Vancouver Camera Swap and Sale, I said I was using ‘Aperture priority’ so I could choose an aperture small enough to give me lots of depth-of-field. Even though the day was bright I had my camera set at ISO 800. That high ISO means the camera will always be choosing a fast shutter-speed that stops subject movement and reduces the chance of camera shake. OK, that was how I shot for those quick photos on that afternoon, but what happens when the sun goes down and the only illumination is artificial lights?
I had rented a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the river. Other guests may have bundled up on balcony chairs with a glass of wine to enjoy the lights along the boardwalk, passing boats and the lights of Pattullo Bridge that crossed the river to connect the communities of Surrey and New Westminster in the distance. The sky was filled with clouds and darkened as a rainstorm slowly moved towards us.
As other guests were bundled up watching, Jo and I had our tripods with cameras attached on our balcony searching out interesting subjects. I was using my trusty 24-70mm and I think Jo had a 28-300mm on her camera.
Sure it had been fun strolling along the boardwalk with my camera, but the real fun for me began when the light started dropping. I waited until that special time when the sky darkened and the buildings became silhouettes against the sky’s cloudy moonless night and the lights on the buildings and the bridge began to glow. That was the magic time that had Jo and I getting as creative as we could be with our cameras.
For those interested in some basic settings.
For many of my shots I was using an aperture of f/8, a shutter-speed of 20 seconds and my ISO set at 64. I had added a neutral density filter some of the time to reduce the ambient light. I will add that I am continually changing my exposure, both the aperture and shutter-speed and the ND filter depending on how the light was. As I shifted my position and subject angle the light and my exposure changed and as it got darker the circles of light along the boardwalk grew bigger and more interesting.
I was hoping the storm would reach us. I didn’t want a heavy rain, but a light rain on the tug boats in the foreground and on the wooden walkway would have been so much fun to photograph. But the rain didn’t come till after I was asleep.
Our photo adventure was going great. Photos along the boardwalk, photos at night, then the camera sale and photos of participants, and I knew I would have time for more photos on the morning we would leave.
We couldn’t have had a better location for our photographs of the nighttime city scape. The fourth floor balcony was perfect. As Jo and I positioned our cameras and talked about how great the view was I thought about what the famous landscape photographer Ansel Adams once said, “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
