Project365 - 30-Second Exposure

I really didn't get a chance to shoot yesterday, as we were busy with New Year's Eve preparations. So I will dig into the archives & pull out some photos of a past project. I like to try different techniques, which help me better understand the relationship between aperture, shutter-speed, and ISO. All part of the learning process...

In this series, I wanted to work with longer exposure times. All of the images in this sequence were shot with a shutter-speed of 30 seconds. They were taken at night, near the downtown core of Calgary, my hometown.

Typically, longer shutter-speeds are used to try to capture a sense of movement. In this skyline shot, the effect was more of a "burning in" of the brighter lights - like those on the Calgary Tower, or the Scotiabank logo on their building.

In this image, we have lots going on. The long exposure time means that we don't capture the individual cars, but rather the streaky red light trails of their tail-lights. The same is true of the headlights of the oncoming traffic. I chose to leave the UV filter on my lens, which created the starburst effect in the bokeh of the street lamps. To be honest, that was purely a happy accident - truth be told, I forgot to take the filter off after my previous shoot !

In a similar shot, taken from the other side of the rail station, we see the oncoming headlights. I like how the train came into the station partway through the shot, leaving both the streaks of the headlights, but also a ghostly apparition of the train !

In this photo, I had hoped to catch some of the people moving around the platform. Interestingly enough they never stayed in one place long enough to even show up as "ghosts" ! Must've been too cold to stay outside.

In this fun photo shoot, I learned how the longer exposure time would affect my photos:

- I got streaky headlights & tail lights

- I got some ghosting from the train, because it stayed still for about 10-15 seconds (half the exposure)

I also learned how the filter protecting my lens might affect the bokeh in the shot !

All in all, it was a. Good shoot, with lots learned. Yay me !