Night for Day in Times Square
There is something gorgeous about shooting at f/2.8 for two minutes during the daytime.
And since my Petzval hasn't gotten a lot of love lately, I played around a bit with the waterhouse aperture plate with a star. Fun bokeh in a place as shiny as Times Square.
Night photography at Loop Head Lighthouse in Ireland
At the tail end of our journey around Ireland, we spent a mystical evening on the southern tip of the Clare County of Ireland's west coast. The location is called Loop Head, a mispronunciation of "Leap Head" from Irish folklore where certain gentlemen escaped a witch by leaping out to the island featured above, and then back. They escaped because the witch did not make the leap back, and legend says her head was found 3 days later at Hags Head up the coast along the Cliffs of Moher. The story illustrates why it's important to not stand too close to the edge, as what my look like solid ground, may have naught underneath it and can fall into the sea.
We scouted earlier in the day, having a wonderful afternoon walking around the lighthouse grounds on the peninsula. Here are a few daylight photos from that jaunt.
Breathtaking views, seals, birds, sea, air... it all adds up to an ideal location for night photography... one would think! But when the night comes, all that sea air and ocean makes for a quick dew/mist. As we approached midnight, it became unbearable - one swipe of my lens to clear it and not three seconds later it was covered in nature's soft focus filter ;-) If you also choose to go here after dark, it's easy to park (and free). But please do be extra careful near the cliffs. Here are my best from the evening:
Valley of Fire Revisited
Back in 2010, I went out to the Valley of Fire for the first time (Read more: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 and Part 4).
Last night I went back with a different group of friends - Joseph Carey and John Faison. It was legendary. Ask me about stories when you see/meet me.
I was testing out my new Trigger Trap dongle and iPhone App on the way out and back, using the DistanceLapse feature - set to trip my D700 shutter every 130m or such. I forget what the setting was since I was playing with it... Anyway, I made that into a nice timelapse for your viewing enjoyment with images from the shoot in the video! (If you are curious, I assemble the timelapse in iStopMotion. This time I edited the movie in iMovie - i normally use FCP Studio.)
I like the results! Great feature. I have reservations about using Trigger Trap on a night shoot, so I used my other external trigger. Here are some final photos!
