Evening at the Tram Stop

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This is photographic opportunism. I was walking through Adelaide on a warm evening at the beginning of February, 2008, and the redevelopment of the city tramway had just been completed, eliminating the old final stop in the middle of Victoria Square and moving it over to the east side, opposite the foyer of the Adelaide Hilton, as a stop on the extended route to the western end of North Terrace. The barricades on the right are left over from the Tour Down Under cycle race, whose headquarters is always opposite the Hilton. I just had to wander over and frame up an approaching tram. The sun was low, the tall buildings are in direct light but their shadow plunges the square into cool tones. The exposure was obviously lengthy, the sky has burned out to correctly expose the foreground. But the soft light gives a smooth texture overall, which suggests the evening's relief from the heat of the day. The usual round of enhancements were done, nothing major. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Cafe culture goes way upmarket

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Low-light photography offers a whole suite of challenges in either optical or digital, and your solutions to these tests might be different on different days (or shoots). It all depends what results you want: the pro might want a tack-sharp image without grain, because s/he is more than likely shooting for a brochure. The amateur will want a good, clear shot, and can afford to live with a little grain, since the image isn't going to be published, much less at large size. Either way, your choices (your solutions to the challenges) will define this project: stop the action, or "correctly expose" the background, produce fantastic depth-of-field with blurred figures, or accept a little grain in the shot...? It's all about film speed, aperture, and shutter speed. Here's a few ground rules to help you make the decision: high shutter speeds will stop the action (no blurry figures), but you'll need either (or both) bigger apertures or faster film speed to get those fast shutter speeds. Big apertures cost you depth of field, and fast film speeds give you grainy images. Long shutter speeds give you blurry figures (anything that might be moving), plus the probability that you'll get "camera shake" during the exposure, which means the whole shot is blurry. Somewhere among all those "downsides" is a happy medium, and depending on what you need or want out of the finished shot, you'll make your decision. Photo by Mel, 2009. (The National Wine Centre, Adelaide, South Australia.)

A Dizzying Perspective

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The escalators up and down to London tube stations (the "Underground") are extremely steep. You really have to hold tight to your baggage and the handrail because in the long glide, especially when moving, and looking, upward, you can lose your orientation. An indication of how steep they are, and of how far off-true your middle-ear can take you, is the orientation of the show posters that line the walls. They are genuinely upright, everything else is skewed! You can also get a sense for how low the lighting is, as the escalator and the people on it are in focus as they are moving relatively the least, while the walls are soft as they move by during the exposure time. A simple framing job, I shot one-handed while holding the rail. The normal sharpen, contrast and colour tweak were applied. Fuji FInePix S5600, automatic; December, 2006. Image by Mike.

Cavernous Architecture

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I was heading down a people-mover from the local-line platform to the gigantic national line terminal at the Manchester Piccadily complex in November 2006, and the symmetry of the stone and steel in this gigantic structure just begged to be shot. The high perspective brought out the marching line of Romanesque arches that echo 19th century civic structures--columns with ancient Corinthian capitals-- and the spiderweb of trusses supporting the roof, while the line of the people-mover itself is a mechanistic adverse feature as its own axis is at odds with the rest of the image. The shot was not difficult, automatic exposure and a simple framing. The floorway moved smoothly so there was no jostling for which to compensate, simply the challenge of shooting straight while toting your baggage. Enhancement is the usual round of subtle tweaks of sharpness, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600; image by Mike.

Past Meets Present

This is a fairly simple shot, low light as it was approaching dusk and amongst high, narrow streets the light was dim enough for the shop lights to really stand out, yet there was enough light for passers-by to not be blurred. The amazing thing is the medieval architecture, the overhang of the buildings as the floors go up. This is not a movie set: it's the old town on the hill at York, in Yorkshire, England, within the ancient city walls and a few hundred yards from the 13th-century cathedral. There are courses of stone on that hill laid by Romans when the town was called Eboracum. You can feel history all around you, even the street market is an institution from the Middle Ages. You have to blink and remember that these narrow streets have been walked for maybe a thousand years, even more. November, 2006; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.