In the dark, in Spokane's Riverfront Park

I have been giving thoughts for at least 6 months or so, about the sculpture on the NW corner of the INB Performing Arts Center. In virtually every trip to Riverfront Park, with cameras in tow, I saw this sculpture as being lifeless when the sun went down. Oh, what to do.

Tonight was the night for this project. I took the Big Max flashlight, with the red, blue, and amber filters. I set up with the 18 X 200 (28mm). I rotated the camera around to shoot vertically, and set up the platform and the tethered shutter release. I switched it so all my shots would be BULB shots, and this would let me somewhat free to move the Big Max flashlight around. I moved the platform only once at this location, moving slightly closer about 30 minutes into this shoot, and a slightly different angle.

My goal was to illuminate the interior section of the sculpture, and once the shutter was released, I was able to walk the thirty feet to the west side of the sculpture with the Big Max flashlight. As long as I kept moving I knew the camera would not register me, and the camera could not see the Big Max on the west side of the sculpture. I'm not sure exactly how long I stayed back there, but I turned the light off and headed back to the camera. I was more worried about leaving the camera out there, than anything else.

I went through this drill a couple of times, and switched the Big Max filter to red. I opened the shutter once more (BULB) and off I went, this time with red. I was behind the sculpture when I started hearing loud continuous noises headed closer and closer. I was able to look through the sculpture and I saw three skateboarders doing circles around my camera and the tripod. I jumped out of the west side of the sculpture and headed back toward my equipment, forgetting I still had the red lamp on in my headlamp. My headlamp did register the speed at which I returned to my camera equipment, but I decided to go ahead and use that image anyhow, although you can see the red streaks headed east along the north side of the sculpture. No big deal, and the three skateboarders did not seem too surprised to see me.

Two of the images are online at:

http://www.spokanenightscenes.com/abt.htm

The second image was shot at a different angle than the first series, and it is the second image that my effort to get back to the equipment was registered as my headlamp red LED bulbs can be seen.

I had about 45 minutes left to use for this nights shoot, so I headed to the "Garbage eating goat." This goat is really dark, so I used a variety of angles and levels of lighting to try and get the goat lit up, without blowing out any of the highlights. I used the Big Max minimally at this location ( blue filter,on the ground ), and used the LED bulbs in my headlamp to do the highlights.

This image is located at:

http://www.spokanenightscenes.com/purplegoat.htm

Total last night was 209 images in CR2 + JPEG. Photomatix, PSE 7, CS3, and Topaz Adjust were used for different things in the editing.

I think we live in a beautiful place, even if I had to work for a couple of hours to shed some light on that fact.

Enjoy.

JDM

Short Night Photography class, Liberty Lake

I have been invited to do a short presentation on Night Photography for the Inland Outlook Photo Club, on Feb 4^th, 2010. The short thirty minutes I have been given, will happen at the Inland Outlook Club meeting in Liberty Lake, at 6:30PM (1830). The address of their meeting is: 22510 E Mission Ave, Liberty Lake

The directions given to all the Inland outlook group by their President Dean Huggins is as follows: "If coming from Spokane take the Otis Orchards Liberty Lake exit 296, turn right at the light (go south) which is liberty lake road, go one block to the next light and turn left on Country Vista Dr, (the end of the Albertsons parking lot), go up a little hill and turn left on Mission, the Denny Ashlock building will be on your right set back off the road a bit. It is a brick building; parking lot is on the left facing the building. For those of you that just cannot follow normal directions just go to Liberty Lake, find the Albertsons and drive behind it, you will find us there in the brick building. Dean"

I have created a handout for the short class, which is available online for you to download, and print, if you desire to do so. This download is a PDF file, and available for you at:

http://www.spokanenightscenes.com/NPFAQ.pdf (2.68MB)

If you have time that evening, and you are interested in this short program (FREE) on night photography, you are certainly invited to attend that evening. Please let me know (photos@spokanenightscenes.com) so I can pass along the numbers to the group scheduling this meeting.

John