I couldn’t decide between two images to post today, so for one day only I’m posting both. It’s not that either is a particularly strong image, but both are similar in style and if I was to write about one and post the other in the future I’d be stuck for things to say. Taken together they nicely round off my little set of Dundrum photos from last Thursday night’s photowalk. So click through to see the bonus photo!
The biggest problem with both images, and let me say it first, is that the subject matter is quite boring – not very pretty buildings in not very pretty surroundings – but I like to think that the photos are lifted somewhat by the slow exposures used, and in particular how that affects both the ambient lights on the buildings and the effect of the passing cars on the images.
The image above gets priority in this post because it is probably my preferred image of the two. I took it from a bridge over Dundrum bypass, just a little further up from where I photographed the shopping centre (just beyond the entrance to the green car park). To get a steady platform for my camera for this photo I had to rest it (carefully) on the edge of the bridge and use the Live View mode to compose the shot. I had the camera strap around one hand at all times so that it couldn’t go anywhere, but wasn’t going to keep it where it was for two long so took just two exposures – the second being what you see above (the first was overexposed). I like how the street lights all line up at the center right of the frame, and while the lights in the car park of the centre blow out, I do like the traffic trails – in particular the lone red brake lights from the car driving up the hill at bottom left.
The second shot, shown below, is taken from the other side of the same bridge (part of the bridge is in the frame), and is of one of the more interesting apartment blocks around the centre. I doubt if the apartments are fully occupied, as they were mainly in the dark. It would have been nice to photograph them with them lit up inside too.
The composition for this shot was chosen to get light trails from traffic passing over and under the bridge at the same time, while the exposure and colour temperature are balanced, as best I could, for the apartment block itself. It’s taken a little later than the ideal time of day for this type of shot, but not too late to retain some detail in the sky.
In the second frame, and one one side of the road in the first frame, there were a lot of cars passing by during the exposures and you can see how that affects the resultant light trails. I think personally I find the effect stronger where only one car passes through the frame, as for the brake lights at the bottom of the hill in the first image, but whether that is true for everyone (or indeed whether people like the effect at all) is definitely a matter of personal taste.
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