Calgary by night
|
4th January 2016
Canon 5d III Canon EF24mm f/1.4L II USM 24mm f/10 ISO 100 20 sec |
This image was made as part of a larger series of the city of Calgary, Canada. The location of the shoot is a footpath beside Crescent Rd NW overlooking McHugh Bluff Park. I chose this location after a full day of scouting in several areas around the city. I arrived at the site around 3:30pm and hauled my gear to position, I wanted to see the setting sun beside the city if possible. January in Calgary is (as you would expect) cold. Standing around on a high bluff waiting for the sun to set does nothing to keep the circulation going and I was glad of my choice of thick skiwear for the shoot.
As the sun dipped below the horizon its colour matched that of the sodium street lights along Memorial Drive in the foreground and thin cloud above allowed a beautiful cobalt blue sky to bring perfect colour balance to the image (the warm tones of the sunset and foreground against the cool tone of the sky above). There are lovely sweeping lines across the image from the foreground to the tall Bow Tower on the left of shot, then the city dwindling in scale from left to right leading us round to the setting sun beyond which the blast of cool blue grabs our attention and forces us to notice the background sky.
Modern cameras make nighttime photography much easier but your exposure will always be more challenging in cityscapes as the artificial light sources burn into the sensor much more quickly than the surrounding ambient light. Night photography is something I really enjoy and should do more of.
As the sun dipped below the horizon its colour matched that of the sodium street lights along Memorial Drive in the foreground and thin cloud above allowed a beautiful cobalt blue sky to bring perfect colour balance to the image (the warm tones of the sunset and foreground against the cool tone of the sky above). There are lovely sweeping lines across the image from the foreground to the tall Bow Tower on the left of shot, then the city dwindling in scale from left to right leading us round to the setting sun beyond which the blast of cool blue grabs our attention and forces us to notice the background sky.
Modern cameras make nighttime photography much easier but your exposure will always be more challenging in cityscapes as the artificial light sources burn into the sensor much more quickly than the surrounding ambient light. Night photography is something I really enjoy and should do more of.