Tom Paiva's Night Photography Blog

One of the best parts of traveling is visiting friends and getting a chance to shoot new locations with the “localers”.  When photographer friends come to California, I usually take them to interesting locations, based on what they want to shoot.

This past trip to NY/NJ was no exemption.  I had the chance to shoot in the Meadowlands area of NJ, which, as the name implies,  is a natural grassland.  Today, it has its rivers, where there are powerplants, warehouses, factories and numerous bridges dotting the area.  One of my favorite photographers, George Tice, has been shooting in NJ for most of his career and is still shooting in 8×10 B+W, now into his 70s.  Much of his work are twilight and night shots and “Petit’s Mobil Station” in particular, is iconic.  Viewing a platinum/palladium or silver print of this image is the only way to really enjoy it, as the tones in the shadows are so subtle.

As most of you know, the industrial landscape has been a photographic passion of mine for many years, and NJ has plenty to shoot!  Here are some images shot in the Jersey City–Meadowlands area.

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These three trucks caught my eye in Jersey City.  The combination of the mercury vapor (green) and sodium vapor (yellow) lamps is a fun mix.  Finding the right position to block the light fixtures, and shade the bright lamp reflecting off the razor wire on the left was a challenge, too.  This is a one minute exposure and I balanced the color to make the fence poles gray.

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This seemingly simple shot of the warehouse back door and stairway, was more of a challenge to shoot because I had to move precisely to block the intense mercury vapor (MV) lamp behind the leaves.  I knew the blue/green color would make the tree’s  leaves more green that they were.  The red cast on the left wall and curb are from a sodium vapor (SV) lamp in the street and I had to shield that lamp from flare.  Other than the mixed lighting, what caught my interest was the two trees leaning left, echoing the railing on the stairs.  I was also standing in the middle of the street, but at this time of night, there were few people around.

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These trucks in Jersey City are parked next to a power plant.  This heavily industrial area was a challenge to shoot because I had to “hide” the brightest lamps of the plant with the trees, and parts of the truck.  I think the reflections off the trucks make this twilight shot.  To cut down on the yellow cast of the SV street lamps, I set the color balance to “K” for degrees Kelvin and set it at 3300 degrees.  This got rid of much of the overall yellow cast typical for urban night shots.  That truck in the middle is, indeed, yellow.

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For this shot, the color balance is still set at 3300K, otherwise the white tank would be yellow from the SV street lamps.  Hiding the lamps of the plant was a challenge again, but I think this is acceptable, considering how many bright lights there were.  The contrast of side light on bare tree gives more interest, too.

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This dirty truck was gray and the 2800K balance shows the way I saw it.  I shot this because I liked the brighter lights in the background and the light coming beneath the truck on the ground.  I let the background be a bit overexposed to get details in the shadows of the truck.  It blocks the brightest lamps and I carefully chose the right angle to catch the reflections off the side and in the left mirror.  Again, I had to shield the lens from flare from the right.

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We were lucky to be able to slip into an open gate of the power plant where there were mountains of coal.  I only had to hide once when a company pick-up came by!  Careful placement of the camera shielded the very bright sodium vapor lamps with the light fixtures of the MV lamp.  These lamps make the coal appear with a blue cast.  The blue balances nicely with the warm tone of the concrete blocks.  The camera was up about 7 feet for this shot.

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On the first of two nights shooting with Kay Kenny, the NJ night photographer, we slipped beyond the caution tape onto an under construction, but almost finished roadway in the Whitpenn Bridge area near Jersey City.  Note the street lamps are not on and everything is nice and clean!  The main light for this shot is a very bright MV construction lamp from the left.  To maintain the depth of field (focus) from the edge of the wall in the foreground to the the bridge in the background, I had to stop down to f11 and the exposure time became 3 minutes.  The color balance is again at 2800K.  The captured image was actually brighter than this, but darkened in Photoshop enough but still saving the shadow detail.  I will explain why in a future blog post.

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On this vertical version, I liked the mix of lights from the SV (warm toned) street lamps coming from the right and the blue MV light from the left.  The three white dots in the sky are actually markers on the power lines over the Hackensack River.  Like the others, the color balance was set at 2800K.

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If you study this image with the one two images up, you can see where this was shot.  Again, the street light on the left is not lit and the MV lamp is casting the cyan colored cast on the right bridge approach.  The warm tone on the wall is from a SV lamp.  At first, you might think the shadow on the right is from that back hoe on the left, but is is actually from another one just out of sight on the left.  The mix of shadows is why I shot this 3 minute exposure.

There was so much to shoot in these two areas, that we barely scratched the surface.  Thanks to Kay for driving me around areas that she would not normally go to alone late at night in Jersey City…

You also might note that there is a new header image.  This is a composite of 4 images of the Ford Rouge River Plant, shot at high ISO from a ship on the Detroit River.  It does look ominous.

Please note that I have created an easier way to sign up for these posts with the email sign up at right.  It is easier to use than RSS, which a few people complained about.  I don’t plan to do as many mass emails.  My goal is to update this blog weekly, so please sign up for notification.

Last week I was in NYC to lecture at the PhotoPlus trade show (and see the latest photo gear), and to talk for a class on night photography at NYU.  NYC is always a great city to shoot in, no matter what the time of year or climate.  Of course I managed to shoot several nights in the NY/NJ area.

One of the many things I did was go to the South Street Seaport Museum on the lower east side where the old Fulton Street Fish Market used to be.  The current show is up until January 10th and has an excellent exhibit on Alfred Stieglitz, with vintage prints of his early work in NYC, including several of his most famous night shots from the 1890s.  Included is the iconic shot “An Icy Night”, 1893, of the trees in a blizzard in Central Park (it’s a one hour exposure, and he was out shooting while he had pneumonia–now that’s dedication!)

Another iconic image is “Reflections Night”, shot at 59th St. and Fifth avenue, 1897.  Also exhibited is the “From the Back Window of 291” at night, an 8×10 original contact platinum print that has so much more detail and tone than I have seen in any reproduction.  There is also work shot in NYC from the 30s by other photographers such as Karl Struss and Berenice Abbott.  I bought the catalog of the show, “Alfred Stieglitz New York” by Bonnie Yochelson, published by Skira/Rizzoli.

It is definitely worth the visit if you are in the NYC area over the next two months.  Here is the link for more information:  http://www.seany.org/index1.aspx?BD=9635

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One of the evenings in NYC I went shooting with Lynn Saville, that veteran NY night photographer.  We walked the 1909 Manhattan Bridge (one of my favorite bridges in NYC, yet under-appreciated today) with the idea of shooting at twilight and at night, but the vibration on the bridge with all the subway traffic (four sets of tracks) and a freak downpour of rain killed that idea.  We decided to continue to walk the rest of the way into Brooklyn, and ended up in the DUMBO area (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) with its warehouses.  Here is a “beauty” shot of my favorite bridge.

The red streaks over in Manhattan are police and firetrucks on FDR Drive, and that’s the Empire State Building in the center.  This is a 30 second exposure.  For these views, I over-rode the “Automatic White Balance” (AWB) and changed it to the Kelvin temperature setting.  For most urban night settings I use between 2800 and 3100 degrees to lower the red/orange cast of sodium vapor lamps that has a tendency to flood the sky.

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Here is a wide shot at twilight showing the massive footing of the east tower of the Manhattan Bridge.  I had to crawl through the wet bushes and mud to get this vantage point, but I think it was worth it.  The orange glow on the right side of the stone base is from a sodium vapor lamp.

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I moved around a bit to use the fall color foliage to both frame the shot and to use its leaves to hide some of the more intense lamps on the bridge.  This, again is a 30 second exposure.

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Just south of the Manhattan Bridge is the Brooklyn Bridge, that icon of NYC.  Again, I used the foliage on the left to block out some of the brighter lamps.  You can see from the reflection on the water how bright that lamp would have been (it still manages to burn through the leaves).  Moving the camera/tripod just a fraction of an inch makes the difference.

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And here is Lynn setting up a shot of the Manhattan Bridge with the Brooklyn Bridge behind her.  I shot this with a slightly longer lens (105mm on a full frame sensor) to compress the city behind her.  Again, I used the yellow/orange fall foliage to add some warmth to the image.  She did not know I was shooting her and was steady the whole 30 seconds of this exposure–obviously working diligently!

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In this image of the Brooklyn Bridge, I used a warehouse in the foreground to add some depth and graphic interest.  There are two mercury vapor lamps on the side of the building (blue-green) and sodium vapor lamp on the left.  After I got home and looked through my books, I realized this is the same warehouse with the bridge behind it that the famed NY photographer Berenice Abbott shot in the 30s.  She was positioned about 50 feet to the left…

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This is the view about 90 degrees from the image above.  I enjoyed the graphic nature of this view and the reflections off the bottom of the Brooklyn Bridge.  Again, I balanced out the orange light of the sodium vapor lamps, making the road and curb neutral gray–the color I envisioned it.  This also is a 30 second exposure.

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It seems that all the exposures were 30 seconds–for a reason–because I forgot my electronic cable release that evening, limiting me to the maximum shutter time of the camera.  We all forget things, but I always make do with what I have.

Next week I will show more images shot on some of the other nights in NYC.

In this post, I have added a few more night shots from the freighter voyage, since I shot so prolifically at night in this once-in-a-lifetime situation.  These examples show relative movement.

In this first image, as the ship goes through the lock at the rate of a slow walk, you can see slight movement in the lock wall.  It is a 4 second exposure taken in the pre-dawn light.  Note that I have balanced for the normally yellow sodium vapor lamps, making them appear white.  This makes the sky a deep blue.  The green in the lower left is from a mercury vapor lamp on the ship (evidence of it are on the deck, too).

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In this image taken a few minutes later, I wanted to really show movement, giving the appearance of speeding through the lock.  It is a 4 minute exposure.  Note that the dawn is quickly breaking during the exposure by the brighter sky.

I stayed up all that night to shoot the ship coming through the locks of the Welland Canal, a series of 8 locks that takes some 11 hours to traverse, and I loved every minute of it.

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In this image, I shot the Blue Water Bridge, at the southern tip of Lake Huron.  I wanted a overall shot, just for location and documentation.  It is shot at ISO 6400 at around 1/4 second.  This high ISO is good for scouting, especially from a moving ship.

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But this is the shot I really wanted, taken as we slipped under the bridge at a few knots.

This is a 10 second exposure at ISO 200.  I was lucky, as it had just rained a few minutes prior, giving the reflections off the wet deck.  The blue lights are LED lamps.  This image gives a great sense of movement.  Being able to switch ISO speeds back and forth are an excellent use of the ‘custom’ functions on modern DSLRs.  Just one click of the function knob, and I was ready for this shot, especially helpful at night, under quickly changing circumstances.

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Here is another image of the ship going through a tight channel.  The lights along the sides are to help the captain guide the ship.  It is a 30 second exposure, and one of 35 sequential images I did for this length of waterway.  I hope to do a stop motion video sequence with them, but have not figured out how to do it.  Any ideas you might have would be helpful.

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This image, looking aft from the port bridge wing, is a 10 second exposure.  The light in the sky is from the near full moon reflecting off the steam/smoke of the exhaust stack.  You can also see the shadows from the moonlight on the deck.  Again, I have balanced the yellow sodium vapor lamps to read as white.

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This image was taken from the starboard bridge wing, showing how the captain navigates the narrow passageways at night, using spot lights and there are also crew members calling the distances out via radio from the bow.  We are just a few feet away from the side of the channel–very tight for a 730 foot long ship.  The lamp uses a xenon bulb.  It is a one second exposure.

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This view from the port bridge wing shows the glow of a mercury vapor (green) lamp that is pointed down towards the deck.  I let it go green and balanced to make the sodium vapor lamps (on shore) appear white.  It is a 4 second exposure, and you can see movement of the shore in relation to the ship.  If you look closely, you can see the silhouette of the captain through the window.  It takes extreme concentration to navigate these ships in these tight channels.

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This is the Ford Rouge River Plant, south of Detroit at around 5 a.m.  The amount of activity for this time of day was remarkable.  The air smelled acrid, and it looks apocalyptic.  It was shot wide open at ISO 6400, and the grain/noise in this case adds to the texture of the image.  I had to use this fast speed, as we were sailing by at around 10 knots, and slower speeds had to much unwanted movement.  I did a series of 4 views what we are making into a panorama of this area.

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Recently, while showing this work, the question came up about whether or not if I was using a tripod.  Yes, all these images are shot on a tripod.  The ship is relatively stable and the tripod (and camera) move with it, making the ship appear sharp.  This unusual vantage point makes the background appear to move.  This is the same reason we get star trails on long exposures at night.  The stars appear to move, but in reality, we on earth are spinning at 1000 mph.

You don’t have to travel on a freighter on the Great Lakes to try this, but try bringing a camera and tripod on a ferry or cruise ship.  I have done that many times all over the world.

Last month, I had the great experience of traveling on a bulk freighter from Chicago to Quebec City.  We sailed through four of the five great lakes and went through about 20 locks.  The ship is 730 feet long and just fits into the 740 foot locks.

As you can imagine, it gave me many chances to photograph at night, as we transited most of the locks at night.  I did many daytime shots too, of workers and the ship operations, but for this blog I will share some of the more interesting night images from this unique perspective.  I shot all digital capture for this trip.

There is also a new header on my blog, of a pre-dawn image from the ship’s bridge.  It is a combination of two exposures, one 4 minutes for the exterior and a 30 second exposure for the interior (which was also very dark).  It is not done with HDR, but merged together by masking.

Here is a photo of the ship itself, for reference.  I shot this when I got off the ship at one of the locks and hitched a ride to the next lock (about a half mile away) stopping to take a few snaps.

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Here the ship’s hatch covers are open during loading in Chicago.

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A deckhand checking the ballast.  This is a 20 second exposure at ISO 800, almost totally dark.  He sure was steady!  I like the reflection off the pipe along the deck.

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I have the camera (on a tripod) hanging over the railing for this one minute exposure, with ISO 200.  It is virtually dark, but the dense overcast gives off a nice glow.  Note the nice smooth tones of the water and waves.  I had to shoot 5 versions of this to get one sharp enough because of the vibration and motion of the ship.

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The bright tungsten (incandescent) bulbs of the stern of the ship actually turns the bright red smoke stack orange to yellow with over exposure.  The intense blue sky is from the full moon night.  Being out on the Great Lakes during a full moon was a real treat.

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This image is all available light and is a one minute exposure at ISO 400 with full moonlight and incandescent lamps reflecting off the bright red stack (from the previous image).  The red glow was barely discernible to the naked eye, but the sensor saw it!

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This image shows the glow of the full moon on the Lake.  To the naked eye, you could not see the horizon line, due to the marine haze.  It made it difficult to shoot with a straight horizon, and I had to “chimp” to make sure it was straight.

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This is a one minute exposure of the full moon rising off the starboard deck.  The exposure was tricky on this shot because the moon was fading in and out of the clouds.  The speed of the ship added to the movement of the clouds.  This is the best of 8 versions of this shot.

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I will be lecturing in New York City this next week, so this blog will stay up until I return.  Next week I will show more from this series with examples of movement and mixed lighting.

Recently, I traveled on a bulk freighter on the Great Lakes (images and story for a future blog) and flew to Chicago and stayed at an airport hotel the night before I boarded the ship.  I always look out the window and usually take a snapshot of the view whenever I stay at a hotel.  Some are more interesting than others, and all are an historical documentation of my travels.

Airport hotels are usually quite dull and boring and this one was no different.  Here is the snapshot I took with my always-at-the-ready point-and-shoot camera.

Not much of an image, I grant you, but a photo documentation of a place and time, just like I always do.

Later that evening after dinner, I went back to the room and looked out the window again and saw this image.  My hotel view was better than I expected!

Again, I took my trusty point-and-shoot out of my pocket and shot again.

This is a lot more than simply a documentation of my hotel view, as it has graphic angularity that is enhanced by the lit covered walkways (compared to the daytime shot).  It has several different colored light sources, including mercury vapor (on the tree in the foreground and the two hot spots on the wall at left).  There are two different types of fluorescent lights in the walkway.  The different colors in the other hotel building windows add some more color to the image.

The camera was set for “automatic” and very straightforward with no tricks and no photoshop to either image.  The only over-ride was that the camera was set to “forced flash off”, where it usually is–I avoid flash whenever possible.  (For those who are curious, the meta data said this exposure was 1/2 second at f2.8 at ISO400).  As you can see, I have a pretty steady hand–no tripod was used either, but I leaned up against the window edge to steady the camera.

It might not be a prize winning image, but still one that is much more interesting to look at than the daytime shot.  It also has a sense of mystery.  By chance, these two images are almost perfectly lined up with each other.

I think our modern urban world with its over-lit buildings can make for some interesting night photography–even with a digital point-and-shoot.  Carry one with you on your travels–and keep a watch out for interesting night views.