fstopandsee

After a day at the Legion of Honor it was time to close and for the crowds to go home. The good news for me was that the best light of the day for photos was just starting.

I like taking photos during the day, but I especially like taking photos at night. There are fewer people around and long exposure photos have a completely different look. On this night I was in the right place at the right time, and was also lugging my tripod around as usual. I worked quickly as a big street sweeper only waited about 30 seconds for me to do my business before almost literally brushing me aside!

There seems to be a bit of excitement around London the last few days, so I dug one of my shots of the city out of the archive and processed it. Night photos like this always take awhile to setup, and this one was no exception as I had to wait for a group of friends to sort out their way home while teetering on the top of these steps. Ultimately they make a good decision to take the tube instead of driving, and more importantly they get out of my shot!

We spent our days in the sun on the beach, but we spent our nights in this cozy little place under the glow of the night sky.

Some say sunset is the best, but for those with some patience to wait 25 seconds for a long exposure, the time just after sunset can really let the city lights shine.

The sweeping curve of the buildings on this street is unique on its own, but the traffic zooming by at night is what really makes it come to life. I wasn’t actually trying to catch this bus, but the driver thought I was for a minute until she saw the camera setup and happily drove by to give me the light trails I was looking for.

Styles change over time. At one time clunky exposed steel was what bridges were expected to look like. Today the more dramatic white tower and cables of the Bay Bridge really shines over the water.

I spent a long time out in the dark to get this photo, but the good news is I had great company to make the time fly by! This isn’t the first time I’ve done star trails, but it is the first time I managed to get the North Star in the shot to make the movement look circular. In the end the wet feet and worrying about my camera ending up in the lake when I heard a big wave crash were all worth it.

Light and angles are two important parts of photography. For this shot I chose dusk for the light and wide for the angle to make a beautiful cathedral a little crazy and dramatic.

Going all the way around an entire country, even if it is a small one like Iceland, requires a lot of driving. The roads go through the wild and varied landscape of Iceland, which meant I was never bored along the way. The bigger problem I had was trying not to stop at every beautiful vista, because if I had I’d never have gotten home!