If you saw the previous post about the locks on the canal in Chester, you will know I was in the dark along the water. While it was very dark down there, this was a pretty busy place with people out walking their dogs or pushing their pushchairs and purchases along after some shopping in the city. I decided to walk along the canal back in the direction of the centre of town. For quite a stretch of this part of the canal, there was no lighting. A sign warned about this as you entered the darkest spot.
There was some ambient light coming down from the streets above. However, the canal course was cut into the rock so the light from above was quite a way off and things were really dark down along the path. What was slightly more concerning was that the water level was almost the same as the bank and, in the low light, it was hard to see where one ended and the other started. I was pretty cautious as I walked along.
As before at the locks, the camera was able to pick up way more detail than my eyes were seeing. There was an old bridge across the canal. According to a sign I saw further up the path, this was to connect the old prison with the chapel on the opposite side. It has since been joined by a larger bridge that carries traffic and this bridge now seems to be out of use. I was soon back out into the (relatively) lighter area and back towards the middle of Chester. As with the locks, this is somewhere I wouldn’t mind exploring in the day so I can see what it actually looks like!
During my evening in Chester, I walked along the city walls until I came to a place where the walls met the railway and the canal. This is a place where the terrain drops off quite quickly and, in order for the canal to make the descent, there is a pair of locks with a very deep drop. It was very dark in this area at night and there was no lighting. Nor was there any fencing around the locks. Consequently, I was very cautious as I explored them.
This was where modern camera technology came to my aid. I could see very little of what was around me, even as my eyes had adjusted to the low light conditions. My phone, on the other hand, did a phenomenal job of picking up the faint light that there was and stabilising the image to build up a usable shot. I can see things in these shots that I had no sight of at the time. I would like to go back in the day to see the locks in more detail. I did figure that, given how deep they were, you could come a cropper in there really easily if you weren’t careful.
A work trip meant an overnight in Chester. I got there late in the afternoon as the light was already fading. By the time I had checked in and changed, it was dark. However, Chester is a picturesque place day or night. The many half-timbered buildings that still survive in the city centre are very attractive. Add to that the cathedral and the sculptures and you have plenty to see. I wander around taking a bunch of shots. I do think a visit again when I am free to explore will be worthwhile. In the meantime, here are some photos of the Chester by night.
Get to the run up to Christmas and, if you have a heritage railway near you, there is a good chance they will be advertising that they have illuminated trains in operation. The trains will have lights all across the outside and probably within the carriages too. I’m sure they are fun to ride on but, from my point of view, seeing the outside lights is more appealing than being inside.
The Watercress Line is close to Winchester, and they had an illuminated service. In fact, they had more than one. My mum was visiting, and she was also interested in the lights so, late in the afternoon, since it was already getting dark at that time, we popped out to see the train go by. Sure enough, we soon saw it coming up the hill out of Alresford. There is a long stretch where the trees have been trimmed back when you get a good view of it coming our way. Even with the lights, the exposure is still a stretch for the camera. It did okay, though, and a bit of noise reduction software helps.
As they came around the corner into the straight heading at us, the lights would illuminate the embankment on either side of the cutting. There was also a strong yellow glow which, I assume, came from the firebox. The colours were constantly changing and it looked really impressive as the loco pulled hard up the bank. I think that they had swapped to a smaller loco because they had a diesel on the back of the train to support.
We were going to head straight home but one of the other people there told us there was a second train coming down from Alton a little while later. While it was getting a bit chilly and definitely dark, we figured there was no harm in hanging around. We did get the second train as it came down the cutting and then headed back the way the previous train had come. Going that way, they are going downhill so the loco is barely working to get them home. No plumes of smoke and thundering noise.
Winchester has a large bonfire and firework display scheduled for the beginning of November. It is on the Saturday rather than the 5th specifically. It all kicks off with a parade through the town to the park where the bonfire and fireworks are. Everyone is welcome to buy a small torch to light and carry as part of the parade. I was more interested in seeing the parade than being part of it.
It was quite funny watching how many people had lit their torches as soon as they got them. Many of them were pretty much burnt out before the parade got underway. Probably a bit disappointing but I’m sure it wasn’t the end of the world. The parade came up through the centre of Winchester and there were loads of people there both taking part and watching.
The mayor was at the front of the parade, and a drum band was close behind. They brought a load of energy to the proceedings. I was playing around with lower shutter speeds to try and represent the movement of the group which meant many totally useless shots. Hopefully some of these give an impression of how things were.
I had been meeting up with people for a drink in town after work one evening. Once we had gone our separate ways, I had time in hand to walk back to Waterloo for my train home. My route took me through Trafalgar Square and, in the oncoming darkness, the illumination of the National Gallery looked really nice and I couldn’t help but stop to get some images. Taking photos in London is a bit awkward because you don’t want to look like a tourist but sometimes you have to overcome the pride!
I had a trip that took me to Los Angeles and, while it wasn’t a photography trip, I did take a camera in case I had the chance to get some images. I took the 200-800 as my one lens since I didn’t know what my shooting options would be so wanted maximum flexibility. The only downside to this choice was that this is a slow lens with small maximum apertures. As it turned out, I got to my hotel at the airport in the evening and the roof terrace was open so I had a chance to get some shots of the planes arriving to the norther complex.
Having a slow lens when doing night photography is not the ideal plan. However, you work with what you have. Also, since I know the R3 can produce some good results at silly high ISOs, I figured I would see what I could get. Even at the the max ISO of 51200, the shutter speeds were very low. While I wasn’t always at the full extent of the lens, this was not going to make things easy. There were areas where the ambient light provided more illumination for the planes, but I still went with high frame rates to see if I could get a few sharp results.
Surprisingly, things worked out pretty well. There was definitely a very low hit rate but the fact that I was getting sharp shots at all was very pleasing. The Enhance AI noise reduction in Lightroom could then do its thing provided the shot was basically sharp to start with. This combination gave me results I was very happy with. If I were to be back at this spot another time, I would definitely bring other lenses along that would provide better light gathering capabilities. Even so, knowing that this can work was a pleasant surprise.
The run up to Christmas brings with it the annual Woodinville Cruisers Car Club Christmas Light Parade in our town. This might be an annual event but it isn’t something we had been to before. The evening was looking dry so we decided to pay it a visit. We didn’t have any idea what to expect but, as we drove down towards the town center, one of the cars for the parade was ahead of us. It wasn’t hard to know where it was going given how many lights were on the outside of the car. (We did spot it in the parade later.)
We went in plenty of time because we didn’t know how crowded it was going to be. This proved to be unnecessarily cautious as the town was still pretty quiet when we arrived – a Sunday night is not hopping in Woodinville – particularly when there is a Seahawks game on TV. We killed a bit of time but as it got close to the 6pm start time for the parade, plenty of people started to show up and, once the cars started rolling, lots of spectators were out.
A firetruck from the local fire department started things off. Then the cars came rolling through. We had no idea how many there would be so we were curious as to whether we would soon be back at home. We needn’t have worried. There were loads of vehicles coming through. Some were vintage vehicles that were interesting in their own rights. Others were modern cars but adorned with tons of lights. Some looked like they had barely bothered to prepare! I was surprised how willing some of the owners were to tape a ton of lights to their paintwork!
I would say that the parade took about half an hour to roll through. There was plenty of pausing as things backed up but there were definitely a ton of different vehicles. Local businesses also took part with their trucks decorated or, in the case of the local balloon pleasure flight business, they had a basket on a trailer with the burners providing a blast of heat and light on a regular basis. A local Facebook group had someone questioning whether there was a fire downtown!
The whole thing was a fun time and we were really pleased to have made the trip out. It far exceeded what we had anticipated and everyone seemed to be having a good time – particularly the kids grabbing the candy thrown from a bunch of the vehicles. There didn’t seem to be any left where we were. Thanks to everyone that took part for making it such an enjoyable event and congratulations to the organizers.
Cleveland Browns Stadium was across the way from the hotel I was staying in while in Cleveland. There was a bar up on the roof of the hotel with an outdoor area, so I headed out there one evening to get some images of the stadium while it was illuminated. There was glass all around the area, so I had to make use of the small gaps available and then stitch the images together to make a pano of the whole stadium. It worked out pretty well for some night images with the phone.
One of the special parts of the trip to Arizona was that Mark and I got invited along by our friend Joe to a night shoot at the Pima Air and Space Museum. I had seen some images from previous night shoots and the idea of photographing the many interesting airframes there in the dark intrigued me. The museum is excellent and well worth a visit, but it can be hotter than hell there and the light can be quite harsh, so this was a great alternative to try.
When I was a student, I used to do quite a lot of night photography. In the days of film, you played a lot more of a guessing game as to how things were working out. Also, film suffered from what was known as reciprocity failure so you could really extend the exposure in low light without necessarily ruining things. Digital is a lot more linear and also gives you the chance to see how things are coming out and have another go.
A lot of the attendees had done this more than once and had come equipped with a variety of tools to play with. Lights on stands, wands of different LEDs, huge flashlights etc. Plenty of things to work with. I had brought some tools along but was definitely keeping it simpler. Joe offered us some lights to work with but, since this was a new effort for me, I decided to keep it simple and try to get one approach worked out.
I had a tripod so I could leave the camera in place and then a couple of strobes to play around with. I had to make some set up adjustments first. Take off IS from the camera since it can wander over long exposures and make things blurry. Second, put the strobes on manual power and experiment with how well they do illuminating things. What I didn’t do but should have with hindsight was to go to bulb mode rather than 30 seconds on the shutter. At some points with the larger airframes, I was very frantic in trying to get everything lit in the 30 seconds. It proved to be rather energetic, and I was pretty pooped by the end of it.
I would open the shutter and then move around the airframe illuminating it with pops of the strobe. I quickly learned to shield the strobe, so it didn’t illuminate me and add me in to the shot. I also came to realize how the larger areas when I stood back a bit needed more light to compensate. All of this is logical but not something I thought of before trying it. More research/planning would have been a good idea. I was also surprised how my shadow could show up in some shots when I have no idea how it would have got there.
I did photograph some of the more famous assets in the collection – how can you ignore a B-58 or a B-36 – but I did also take time for others that were just of more interest to me. The size of the place meant you could easily not come across one of the other photographers for a while. They were helpful in pointing out the hazards of guy wires. Some of the larger planes have wires to stabilize them and these are basically invisible in the dark. If you are running around popping off flashes, you could easily collide with something unyielding. Fortunately, nothing like this for me but maybe some luck in that?
Would I do it again? Absolutely! It was very interesting and got some nice results. It also taught me a lot about what I wasn’t doing right and would set me up for a few ideas of how to do things differently in the future. I think a large flashlight would be an addition I would make, and I would definitely use the cable release and bulb mode. My thanks to Joe for taking us along and to the team for letting us join in.
If you saw the previous post about the locks on the canal in Chester, you will know I was in the dark along the water. While it was very dark down there, this was a pretty busy place with people out walking their dogs or pushing their pushchairs and purchases along after some shopping in the city. I decided to walk along the canal back in the direction of the centre of town. For quite a stretch of this part of the canal, there was no lighting. A sign warned about this as you entered the darkest spot.
There was some ambient light coming down from the streets above. However, the canal course was cut into the rock so the light from above was quite a way off and things were really dark down along the path. What was slightly more concerning was that the water level was almost the same as the bank and, in the low light, it was hard to see where one ended and the other started. I was pretty cautious as I walked along.
As before at the locks, the camera was able to pick up way more detail than my eyes were seeing. There was an old bridge across the canal. According to a sign I saw further up the path, this was to connect the old prison with the chapel on the opposite side. It has since been joined by a larger bridge that carries traffic and this bridge now seems to be out of use. I was soon back out into the (relatively) lighter area and back towards the middle of Chester. As with the locks, this is somewhere I wouldn’t mind exploring in the day so I can see what it actually looks like!
