Tom Paiva's Night Photography Blog

First, I want to thank all of you who came to my show opening last week on Loss: The LA Auto Dealership series.  There was a great turnout.  The show will be up until April 30th, the closing day of all the MOPLA shows.

Many of you know that I enjoy on-going projects.  They let you experience the subjects in different light, time of day and in different seasons.  The same shot done 6 months later frequently offers a totally different view.

Another project I’ve been working on is photographing on I-5, the major artery between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.  I’ve been driving it for 40 years, having lived at both ends, several times.  Most find this highway boring, but I find that after shooting it for a year now, both day and night, I find it has its own personality.  Like many of my other major personal projects, I’m shooting it in 4×5 film.

I’ve shot over 150 views so far, and have recently edited them down to the top 50 that tell a story.  Here are a few from the series.

Twilight is my favorite time of day to shoot, as the muted tones soften the image.  Here a semi-truck is traveling north-bound with the “civil twilight” light behind it.  The multitude of wildflowers, tumbleweed and cactus in the foreground is typical of Central California in the spring.

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The California Aqueduct is an important part of the infrastructure of the state.  It criss-crosses I-5 from Sacramento to LA.  This shot is taken from a small bridge on a farm road, with I-5 in the background.

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The long distance trucks are the real king of I-5, moving goods between the major cities.  This shot was made at the Grapevine Weigh Station, with the sun just seconds from setting.  I waited for a truck that had color to contrast the dark blue heavy sky, but also had no blatant advertising on the trailer.  I chose a shutter speed just slow enough to show movement, but keeping the truck recognizable.  The CHP came out and rousted me just after I got this shot.

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The infrequent “rest areas” with their fast food and motel are used by all at one point or another.  This confusing jumble of signage and the trucker parked for the night tells the story of being on the road.  It was a heavy overcast evening for this twilight shot.

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Many people outside of California don’t realize that agriculture is the largest business in the state.  The San Joaquin Valley is the single largest agricultural area.  Here we can see how the motel on the interstate mixes with the farms.  This was also shot in the last seconds of sun, with its pleasing warm tones.  It was very windy and I had to shelter the camera from the 20mph winds with the dark cloth and my body (note the leaning palm trees).

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Sometimes, the simple shot is the best one.  I walked around this fast-food restaurant parking lot for several minutes to find what I thought was the best single shot.  That is one of the disciplines of the view camera, to slow down and really look and the subject, find the right place for the camera and then choose the lens to capture the field of view you want.  I then waited another few minutes until the light balance from sunset matched the mercury vapor light reflecting off the asphalt.  If you look closely, you can actually see the purple sky reflected off the asphalt, lower-center.  That’s the headlights from I-5 in the background.  Note the headlights of a car coming over the overpass, center-right.

I’m continuing with this series, studying the different exits, making notes for “next time” and what time of day is best.  This blog is listed as a “twilight and night photography blog” but I’m planning to expand it to include day shots for series like this one.  I might be known for my twilight and night work, but I also don’t want the blog to be too restricting.  Day shots also tell the story.

See you on the road…

I’m a little behind on getting this new post up, but I’ve been waiting for my new website to launch.  It’s been worth the wait, as I’m very happy with it.  Many thanks to Susanne Friedrich for the many hours to design, re-design and the seemingly endless details that needed attention.

The new site is a major change for my work to a more fine art direction.  The man-made urban and industrial landscape has been what I’ve enjoyed shooting for quite some time. The site is set up into 8 portfolios of projects I’ve recently done and ones I’m currently involved with, such as the Bay Bridge project and the Interstate 5 series.

Have a look, and I’d love to hear your comments, suggestions, ideas and even criticisms.

www.tompaiva.com

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On another note, I have a major show of my work opening April 19, 7pm-10pm at the Pop Up Gallery at 727 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, between 7th and 8th streets.  It is in coordination with MOPLA, The Month Of Photography in Los Angeles.  I’m really excited about this show and hope you can make the opening or to see it while it’s up.

The exhibit is called Loss: The LA Auto Dealership Series, shot back in 2011.  The prints will be large, 24×30 and 30×40 inches, taking advantage of the large 8×10 inch film size.  Here is a flier with the details.

Here are a few images from the show, not seen on this blog before.

This forlorn dealership in Pasadena has taken more than it’s share of abuse.

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This image, entitled “One Security Light” really shows the open spaces these dealerships take up.  At first, I wasn’t sure if that light on the right would come on, but I’m glad it didn’t.

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Shooting with the 8×10 camera really slows you down to study what’s out there.  Every image is well thought out and planned.  There were many views similar to this one, but the graphics and balance worked for me in this shot.  The title of this image is “There Is a Difference” which refers to the red sticker on the electrical box in the center.  It is difficult to read at this resolution, but is very clear in the large print.

First, I want to mention there was an interview done with me for the Blend Images blog.  Have a read, as I discuss my night photography, the film-digital transition, among other things.  http://blog.blendimages.com/2013/01/08/blend-profile-tom-paiva/

In November, I spent a couple of weeks in Spain on holiday.  It was a magical trip.  Of course, I shot a lot of images, and would like to share a few of the twilight and night shots.  I flew into Barcelona to begin the trip.

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Being out at night is still my favorite time, be it at home or away.  In this shot on one of the many back alleys off the Las Ramblas old section.  The alley, graffiti and this scooter said “Spain” to me.

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In what seems like a fashion shoot with models, is really three mannequins showing the hip clothes.  The scooters belong to customers.  All outdoors on a quiet side street.

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I love to simply wander around the quieter residential sections of cities at night and simply observe.  This is an entrance to an apartment building that had some interesting plays of light in the hall from the wrought iron lamp.  This was shot through the bars on the door, using it as a makeshift “tripod”.

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Here are a couple of young women going into the local subway station near my hotel.  When I’m shooting street scenes at night, I put the camera at a high ISO of 3200 and shoot at the maximum aperture with my Sony NEX-5.  This way, I’m able to grab the unaware subjects in mid-step.  No flash, of course.  This would have been very difficult to do in the film days.

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This is a twilight shot, but it’s a pre-dawn view–an unusual time for me to be shooting, as I’m not a morning person.  In this case we were taking a train for the day to Figueres, Salvador Dali’s hometown, and we needed coffee.  We were this merchant’s first customer of the day.  Note the touch of blue light on the ‘restaurant’ sign from first light of dawn.

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Yes, it rains on holiday, but I don’t let it stop me from shooting.  The reflections, especially at night, add to the interest and drama of the shot.  This quiet square, typical of Barcelona, ‘comes alive’ when it’s wet.

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One of the famous signatures of Barcelona is the architecture of the early 20th century work of Antoni Gaudi.  This is the front facade of  Casa Batllo, shot from the interior at night.  I had studied his work in art school, but it never intrigued me as seeing his work in person.  He designed the buildings as well as virtually all the interior hardware and features.  I wound up touring 5 of his major structures, including his private residence.  His work influenced many architects and artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Walt Disney and even George Lucas, as he was inspired by La Pedrera’s chimneys to design the stormtrooper helmets in the Star Wars movie.  This shot was made by shooting from another window using the swinging rear monitor of the Sony camera.  It would have been near impossible otherwise, as I could not see the back of the camera or use a viewfinder (if it had one).

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With the last of the light fading, I quickly went up on the roof of Casa Batllo to catch twilight as it was fading.  The interesting shapes, design and modern lighting all came together as I shot this series as quickly as I could.  These seven are part of the 30 I shot on the roof.  This first shot was the first made and the last less than 10 minutes later.  Note how the lighting changes so quickly at twilight.

Compare the subtle light on the ‘cross’ with the three below.  The lights had just come on.

In this last of this series the sky is almost black.  The ‘cross’ has become too bright compared to the rest of the image.  Twilight is all but over and I went inside the building and shot over 200 views of the interior and details and spent over two hours inside.  What a fascinating building, indeed.  Here is the official Casa Bonllo website photo gallery for daytime and a few twilight views:  http://www.casabatllo.es/en/image-gallery/

Lately, I’ve been a little lax about posting a new blog, as I have been very busy with commercial work.   Also, I was hoping to shoot and share some new work on the Bay Bridge construction project, but they are at the stage of tensioning the suspension cables to support the bridge itself, and no one except the most essential workers are allowed on the bridge deck or tower.

Last week I was in Portland, OR on personal business, and was looking forward to spending at least one evening shooting at night.  I decided to shoot in the industrial section on the east side of the Willamette River at the foot of the Fremont Bridge, for those who know Portland.  Being prepared for Portland, I brought rain protection gear for the camera, but this day was a record-breaker of 102 degrees!  Twilight was welcomed to cool things off a bit.

This twilight shot shows how lonely this part of town was after the day shift is over.  Being the summer, twilight was around 9pm.

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This area was open and unfenced–such a difference than Southern California.  The sodium vapor lamps are causing the reddish tint on the white rail cars.  The bright yellow lamps on the silos and the pale blue refrigerated hemispherical building made for an interesting mix of light.

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For this back-lit image, I hid the main street lamps behind the rail car on the right.  We are in the last minutes of twilight for this and the following shot.  For those technical folks, I set the color temperature to 3000 degrees Kelvin on my digital SLR, which is the setting I use for most urban night shots.  The final color can be adjusted at the computer, of course.

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This is basically the reverse angle of the previous shot.  You can see the flatter lighting.  I did several variations of this shot, and chose the wider angle view, as it makes the rail cars less dominant and shows the setting and scale.

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Moving on from the rail area, I drove a couple of blocks and saw this interesting mix of colors.  I was also fascinated how void the area was of people.  This image portrays that feeling.  The only people I saw the whole evening were a couple of homeless guys scavenging for scrap metal from trash bins.

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Here is a subtle image, with subjects as simple as a bridge support a wall and a garbage truck.  There were dozens of these trucks, but finding the right angle and location to make the shapes work took a few minutes to walk around a bit to study what was there.

One of the  things I was testing this trip was a new tripod/head combination that I recently purchased for a planned trip to Europe in the fall.  I’m not into plugging equipment, but this tripod is an extremely compact Benro with 5 leg segments, making it only about 19 inches long, with their small ball-head attached, yet it goes up to almost 6 feet (to the camera viewfinder).  To see more about the tripod, click here, and for the ball head, click here.  It is only about 4 pounds and also lies flat in the included padded case–perfect for travel.  The tripod is always the most difficult item for night photographers to travel with.  This tripod fits in my smallest suitcase, so sweat.  The above shot was a challenging one, as the full sized digital SLR and zoom lens for the vertical view is pushing the ball head to the limit.  A cable release is a must, as it was not the most solid set up, like I’m used to, but like anything, it is a compromise of size and weight from my other much bigger and heavier tripods.

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I was able to get right up to the foot of the Fremont Bridge, the longest spanned bridge in Oregon, opened in 1973.  You cannot begin to get this close to any bridge in CA on foot with a camera, not to mention NYC.  That is a cement plant in the background.

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Here is that cement plant just to the left in the prior image.  Finding the right location as not to see any of the open lights was a challenge.  It was also much darker than it appears in this 2 minute exposure.

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This straight-on shot of the Fremont Bridge was an obvious ‘bridge shot’, and is more difficult to shoot than it appears, as being just a foot either direction would make the horizontal  girders mis-aligned.  I shot this as a wider shot (16mm) but thought this less wide shot worked better (about 24mm).

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Getting away from the typical “straight-on” previous shot, I shot from a boat ramp.  Graffiti isn’t normally a photographic subject for me, but I like the texture that it gives to the wall in the foreground.  I underexposed this by a stop (half the light) as not to make it a shot about the graffiti and I also wanted to save the light on the bridge upright from being too bright.

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I wandered back under the Fremont Bridge and switched to a longer lens to shoot the bridge footing.  Removing the clear filter from the lens avoided the typical flare issue that single lamp would have created (no Photoshop work was needed, as this is a straight shot).  The silhouetted piles of sand in the foreground and the Interstate-405 approach ramps on the left give added dimension.

At this point it had been a long day, (and was still 88 degrees), and I noticed that the Widmer Brewery and pub (famous for their Hefeweizen beer) was a couple of blocks away.  On their website, you can see the silos on the right that I shot with the rail cars.  Having a couple of brews just before last call was just what was needed.  Portlanders do love their beer!