Sometimes I’m wondering why I don’t shoot so much in the night in summertime. I guess that that’s because the nights are shorter. Perhaps because there are mosquitoes. I really don’t know.
What I do know, is that when I go out in winter time, I do have a lot of fun. Shooting downtown Winnipeg during the night can be a scary business, for the faint of heart. I don’t mind, but it’s more fun with fellow photographers.
True, I was asked a few times why and what I was shooting, but nothing really scary or menacing. I guess some people think twice before they imagine something with a 250 pound photographer. I’m big, but I don’t look like as if I have no speed anymore. But I digress, let’s get back to night shooting.
Traffic lighting
Shooting on Portage avenue is a bit of a hit and miss affaire. You set up a shot, press the shutter and at that precise moment a huge bus arrives and spoils everything. Not a big problem, though, you just wait until the bus is gone and shoot again.
Overview
It’s an exercise in patience, let’s put it that way. Shooting at night usually is very quieting for me. Unless I break my camera, that already happened.
Crossing the street
At night, you have to use a tripod. I must say that with a tripod, you have a different kind of shooting. You frame the shot, look around, reframe the shot, then take the picture. You can then check your settings and shoot again if necessary. All that without so much as lifting a muscle to reposition that camera.
Just the lights
Very soothing. The next advantage is that by putting the camera on a tripod, you don’t have to crank up the IOS and thus you can avoid noise.
Movement
Shooting city lights is a very nice way of knowing how to frame a shot. The lights don’t go anywhere and you are nearly assured of a good picture, whatever settings you use. Add in a bit of fog and you’re golden. This time no fog for me, though.
Flying snowflakes
By the time I was taking the above picture, it had started snowing lightly. While lens flare is visible in this picture, look at the mirrored green star, the “dirt” you see here is in fact blowing snow.
Loose screws
Nice or not, it started to get a bit cold, the wind was picking up. Wind chill, or “Feels like” temperature is more important here than the real temperature. a light –9C can be brutally cold if the wind is a mere 30km/hour. Cold enough, I went home. On my way I came across these trees, planted the tripod and probably forgot to tighten a screw. The effect is quite interesting.
As for the lead picture, zooming in during an exposure gives this type of result. Add a little bit of level adjustment in Lightroom and the picture is made. Hardly any magic in it 
.
More night shoots are planned, but for now, this is all. See you next time!