Cherry Creek North Night Photowalk

I've been wanting to attend one of Illuminate Workshops' monthly night photowalks for more than a year, but always had some sort of conflict or excuse. This past weekend I finally changed that, joining the group for a trek around Cherry Creek North.

And quite a group it was -- nearly 40 people in all with as wide a variety of cameras as I've ever seen in one place.  We started around 8:00, with no particular agenda or plan other than to look for eye-catching visuals like the reflections off the windows of this office building.

There was no way I could pass up shooting these fountains, though I wish I'd been able to shoot down on them even more to take out the slightly distracting background.

Some interesting neon lights in a salon.

I applied some of the zoom lens light painting techniques I'd learned at the Butterfly Pavilion workshop back in January to pleasing effect on this parking sign.

You may have to study this shot for a bit before the face becomes apparent.  It's the statue in front of the Wizard's Chest game/toy/magic/costume shop.

Another statue in a dramatic pose that I thought the sharply contrasting light accentuated nicely.

Streetlights cast shadows of tree branches on the sidewalk.

I settled for shooting the sign, but what I really wanted was to go in for a burger.

Traffic passes by the Cherry Creek Shopping Center on 1st Avenue.

More zoom lens light painting with a sign in front of a parking garage.

A canopy above a street glowed with lights of changing colors.

Spent 2 1/2 hours wandering around before about half of the hardy souls who hadn't yet turned into pumpkins gathered for a drink at Machete.  It was great to shoot something so completely different from my normal landscapes and wildlife, and I look forward to doing more urban nighttime photography soon!

Butterfly Pavilion: Living Lights

You know I'm serious about photography when I miss a Broncos playoff game to attend a workshop. Mike's Camera held a class on exposure values and light painting Sunday night, which I honestly signed up for well before the NFL postseason schedule was set. And admittedly, I did check my SportsCenter app more and more frequently as the night went on.

Fortunately, both the game and the workshop went the way I'd hoped. :)

The light sculptures were the focus, but I was initially captivated by one of the heaters.  As the night continued and my hands grew colder, I was captivated by the heaters for other reasons.

The winds were gusty, which had to be dealt with when shooting with long exposures.  And it's a fine line between being an artistically blurry picture and a just plain bad one.  I liked how this particular shot turned out -- kind of like a neon x-ray.

I'm typically a slave to the rule of thirds, unless I'm dealing with a scene that has symmetry.  Then I want things dead center.

A patch of grass lit up with red light resembled a firework.

The city lights in the background turned me off from shooting many wide scenes.  But I thought this view was all right.

Sucker for running water that I am, I spent a lot of time around a water feature that runs through the gardens.  This one made me think of a home aquarium.

Some lights on the ground were interesting, but didn't come out quite as sharp as I wanted.  Which is odd, because the wind wasn't blowing them around.  I suppose the wind could have been making my camera with its zoom lens shake a bit.

The zoom didn't shake on this scene, though.  Nice and crisp.

The light painting we discussed in the lecture portion wasn't the kind I was thinking of, where you shine a flashlight around.  Instead we were experimenting with zooming in and out with the aperture open.  Out of my comfort zone, but pretty fun.

I ended up being one of the last ones there, merrily zooming in and out on different displays.  Frozen fingers were a small price to pay for the chance to learn some new tricks!

Bright Moon Workshop

Had my second outing with Gentleman Steve Gandy last night -- a Bright Moon Workshop in Boulder's Chautauqua Park. Overcast conditions late in the day threatened to scuttle it. But the skies had cleared enough by 7:00 to keep it on. And the remaining clouds added some interest to the shots.

We didn't start shooting until 9 p.m., with the aforementioned bright moon as the primary light source.  I was amazed at how bright the shot could end up with the right combination of ISO, aperture and shutter speed.

Long exposures gave the clouds a lacy look much like flowing water, which was the focus of my first workshop with Steve.  Only two other souls braved the chilly temperatures, so we each got plenty of hands-on tutelage.

I liked how the fence serves to anchor this particular angle.  But I wasn't particularly happy with the focus on any of my shots.  I tried setting it for infinity using the moon itself, but wish I'd gotten just a little crisper detail.  Something to work on next time.

Since the Earth is rotating while the shutter's open, the stars begin to turn into trails rather than points.  You can see some here in just a one-minute exposure ...

... and the handful here practically look like shooting stars in a six-minute exposure.

We didn't move around a lot and shoot a lot of different angles.  Instead we stayed in one spot and concentrated on exposure, focus and composition.  Really a tremendous experience -- one I'm very glad I stayed up past my normal bed time on a school night for. :)