christopherpayne
FollowAt Seaport Village in San Diego, California
At Seaport Village in San Diego, California
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Awards
Contest Finalist in Social Exposure Photo Contest Vol 4
Featured
Contest Finalist in Yellow, Orange And Red Lights Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Light On Water Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in HDR Only Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in After Hours Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in How To Wow Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Capturing Light by Focal Press and Creative Live
Peer Award
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Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken in Downtown San Diego, California right around the Seaport Village area.Time
This photo almost didn't happen. I had driven all the way to downtown for some night photography, and then realized I had left my tripod at home. I was very limited in what I could do, at this point. It was probably about an hour to an hour and a half past sunset, and since I couldn't take the shot I came for without a tripod, I was looking for another opportunity. I came across this restaurant and knew I had to somehow get this shot. Luckily, there was a large concrete dock nearby with a metal railing. The space between rails was just right so that I could hold my camera against the upper and lower rails, and get a perfectly steady shot.Lighting
The clouds in this scene were absolutely crucial to the lighting. I used to get disappointed downtown if it was a cloudy night, but I've learned to use it to my advantage. With a solid cloud cover, the many lights of downtown reflect off the clouds and give a much more interesting sky, than the almost totally black sky (and water color) I would have had without them. With that setting the overall ambient light in the photo, all the man-made lights reflecting in the water were just so beautiful, complimenting the rest of it.Equipment
For this photo I used a Canon 5D Mark III, a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II lens, and...the railing as a tripod!Inspiration
You know, I don't always have a deep meaningful reason for taking a photo. In this case, I loved the dark brown wood that makes up this beautiful restaurant, the pillars it sits on over the water, and the reflections that all of that and the lights make, in the water. The ambient color in the photo, thanks to the clouds, just seemed to perfectly compliment everything I just mentioned.Editing
In Lightroom, I brought up the dark areas some, and brought down the bright/white areas. I moved the white balance a smidge, and gave a bump to the saturation and vibrance.In my camera bag
I generally carry my Canon 5D Mark III camera body, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L lens, Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens, Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens, Sigma 500mm f/4.5 lens, tripod, circular polarizer, remote shutter release, 8 batteries, 4 chargers, a DC to AC voltage converter to give me a plug to run my laptop, if I am staying overnight, I bring my laptop to sort through photos while I'm out there, and various other small items, like a lens cleaner and such.Feedback
Patience! Just because your subject, in this case, is perfectly stationary, doesn't mean you're going to get your best shot by plopping down with your tripod, and snapping your shot. I spend typically 1-4 hours in locations like this. Cloud cover or not, your lighting conditions are still going to be changing over time, and it's hard to predict which amount of light and the colors presented, will make the best shot. Especially when there is no cloud coverage, whenever I plan to go anywhere for night photography, I try to get there before the sun goes down, and scope out locations, unless I am already very familiar with the area. There will always be that moment where the light in the scene and the colors present make you say "that's it!"....so go take lots of shots in the time...but don't forget to take shots before and after what "sweet spot", as I have sometimes found that the best photos I take, aren't the one I thought they would be, when I was on location.