Skulking about in London
Lovely long exposure work from lovely London…
I love to just wander the streets of London. It’s my favorite city and I always find beautiful things to aim the camera towards. This was one of those evenings. I was all over the place and whenever I see a busy street (at every turn in London LOL), I like to set up the tripod for a long exposure and capture some passing cars.
Chicago nights
A rainy night in Chicago, and I was downtown grabbing some shots of their iconic theater…
I was in Chicago recently, and one evening after a little rain, I wandered over to the Chicago Theater to capture a shot of that iconic spot. I have seen plenty of pics of this over the years, and always wanted to get some. I was traveling light, with just a prime lens, but what I lacked in versatility I gained in mobility. I took quite a few shots while I was standing there, and loved every minute of it!
Covent Garden at night
A night shot of a musician at work in Covent Garden, London…
From my last visit to lovely London…I captured this gentleman playing music in Covent Garden while wandering over there one evening. It’s a beautiful part of London and one well worth visiting. I will be returning to London soon and hope to pop over here for a little while to check it out again!
Nights in Amsterdam
A night shot from the archives…Amsterdam looking all lovely.
I love wandering in cities, day or night, but of course at night when the lights come on things really look interesting. This was from a trip a number of years ago to Amsterdam, and was one of my last shots before calling it a night.
Delirium
Evening in Brussels and I am out wandering the streets with my camera…
Here’s a night scene I shot in Brussels, Belgium a number of years ago. I love the historic center of Brussels, right around Grand Place. It’s just so photogenic and beautiful. I love to wander those streets and fire away. Back then, I wasn’t as much into night photography as I am now, but still got out a bit and took some shots. Always a good time!
Temple Bar nights
Night at the Temple Bar, in lovely Dublin, Ireland!
Ah, lovely Dublin - one of my favorite places! I have been 5 or 6 times over to Dublin, and enjoy it so much each time. It’s not a large city, which is part of what I like about it, and the core city center is fairly compact. So I can wander with my camera and cover it all pretty well without too much effort. This was shot outside the famous Temple Bar one evening. You can see the crowds are pretty thick, which is one reason I often will also get up at sunrise to shoot it. It’s completely empty then!
Nights on the bridge
A long exposure in London wherein I captured the light trails of a passing boat…
This was a fun little shot. I was taking a long exposure of the Millennium Bridge in London with St Paul’s Cathedral in the background. During the shot a boat passed by, and I was able to capture it’s light trails, which you can see at the bottom of the frame. Kind of a fun accident!
Across the River Thames
Lovely London lights at night…
Wandering along the River Thames in London one evening, I was taken by the lovely lights and reflections of said lights in the river. So I wandered and shot, picking out different buildings to try and capture the best views that I could. This one is one of my faves from that evening, with that awesome Walkie Talkie building all light up and reflecting.
Night at the Tower Bridge
Night at the Tower Bridge in lovely London…
More from London, and plenty more still to come!
Even though I visited London back in January, I have a long way to go towards sharing all the photos I took there. Altogether I came home with something like 9,000 photos. Now of course most of that is 3 exposure brackets, which really boils down to about 3,000 photos. Still, that's a LOT and will take me a long time to sprinkle them here onto the blog. You see I enjoy variety and therefore I don't share a lot from one place in a row. I simply get bored talking about it. In other words, I may never get them all onto the blog. :-)
Night at Covent Garden
Covent Garden in London under the cover of darkness…
Here's a pair of pics from lovely London, one of my favorite cities anywhere. Covent Garden is a great place to hang out and shoot, although at times the security guards get all fired up about tripods. So you have to be stealthy and quick to get it done! ;-)
Dark nights in London
A dark night in London, and I was out with the camera capturing shots of this lovely city.
An evening out and about in London with the camera - took home lots of photos!
I wandered quite a bit when I was in London back in January. Being there by myself - instead of with the family - meant I was free to do whatever I wanted, and whenever. So basically I just was out shooting all the time, which was great. I captured this one over by the Tower Bridge, on the south side of the River Thames. You can see part of the bridge way in the distance. There are quite a few office buildings there and it's a great place to wander with the camera...just sayin'! :-)
Night on the Old Bridge
The Old Bridge in Heidelberg, Germany, done up with a couple of different looks. Which do you prefer?
There's just something about German architecture.
I absolutely love Germany. It's such a gorgeous country and I have adored the architecture there for many years. I also love bridges, and when I knew I was going to visit Heidelberg, Germany I knew that I wanted to get several shots of the Old Bridge there (aka the Alte Brucke). Although I was only there 2 nights, that was plenty for me to get out and capture this beautiful bridge.
I shot on the bridge looking both directions and I shot from the side of the bridge, doing everything I could think of to really capture it. This was one of my very last shots that night, as I was wrapping it up and heading back to the hotel.
This is the gate at the end of the bridge which is closest to the Altstadt (Old Town). I love those onion domes and the whole looks just screams Germany to me.
When I first edited this photo, I edited it this way:
I really like this shot and had absolutely no intentions of changing it up. But I have been experimenting with a lot of color shifts lately, and in particular one look that is fairly popular: the orange and teal look. So I decided to give this one a go with the orange and teal look, and ended up with what you see below. After spending a lot of time experimenting with orange and teal, I actually think that I like it better for this shot. What do you think?
On the streets of New York
Two photos from NYC, showing different sides of this amazing city...
So much to shoot and always so little time!
New York is just an incredible place to shoot, although that's not exactly a revelation. I have grown to really love visiting there. Even returning to the same spots, I always find new stuff to shoot. It's just an insanely rich photographic environment.
Being a big city, New York really comes to life at night. I think if I lived there I would be out with the camera every night. There is literally something at every turn. I don't know how I would ever get any sleep. I would constantly feel like I was missing something!
When there, I love taking photos of the little things I come across, such as the photo below. It's a simple kebab stand on a corner, but little scenes like this are interesting to me. For these quick snaps in low light, I usually shoot at about f/2 with a higher ISO and go handheld. There's something to be said about leaving the tripod at home, even at night.
Gritty city
A gritty urban shot from NYC. Have you been here?
A gritty shot from Times Square in NYC!
I actually enjoy Times Square. Many people hate it because of the crowds, but it's kind of an interesting place. There are a million different things you can shoot and I have generally enjoyed being there. I wonder if locals hate it?
I took this shot on one of my trips to NY. I am a fan of gritty, grungy city shots anyway, so this was sort of the plan when I arrived. This is a 3 exposure HDR, which helped balance out the neon and stuff, and I had to wait for that bus to start moving so I could capture the light trails. But there's always something to look at, so waiting is not a big deal.
In addition to amping up the details, I reduced the saturation considerably to accentuate the gritty urban look. Too much saturation makes it "prettier", sorta of. Just a few minutes in Aurora HDR and it's done!
Strasbourg nights
A lovely evening scene in Strasbourg, France...
I love cityscapes, and train tracks, and neon lights. I was happy to get all 3 in this shot!
This was one evening in Strasbourg, after we had been wandering in and out of all the little Christmas Markets in the town - literally, there are quite a few of them. We were making our way home and I saw this scene, and just had to fire away. Can you blame me? ;-)