Quirkus_Malurkis

Bridge view

Canon EOS 600D

settings

Aperture f/19 ISO 100 Shutter 15/1 Focal Length 31/1

upload_date

Jul, 2015

Views

203

Likes

+29

Awards

Fall Award 2020

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Superior Skill

Superb Composition

Outstanding Creativity

All Star

Peer Award

Top Ranks

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Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Behind The Lens

Location

The bridge is called Seafarers Bridge, in the Melbourne (Australia) central business district, over the Yarra river. It's a relatively new bridge as part of the redevelopment of the area, new cafes, bars and restaurants, a conference centre, hotel, retail. Its named after the Seafarers Mission nearby, built in 1919, still standing and operational, to cater to the physical and spiritual well-being of international seafarers.

Time

The image is taken at night, specifically late in the evening when there where not many people around. Night gives me the best opportunities to take the time to really set images up, to experiment, practice my photographic craft and explore creativity without interruption.

Lighting

Shooting at night is an opportunity to see the world differently. In an urban environment, once day falls into night, artificial light creates a new dialogue, boundaries are blurred, contrasts change, intrigue arises and new stories are told. Working with night lights, street lights, glaring tungstens can be challenging to harness, and difficult to reproduce faithfully in camera what the eye sees, partly because of the nature of the glass in the lens, as well as the harsh contrasts and odd colour casts reflected through the night. Conversely this is also an opportunity to play with creating bokeh effects and experiment with long exposures, or in the case of this image utilising a narrow aperture to create a starburst light effect which adds a point of interest and atmosphere.

Equipment

I'm a poor photography student so only have a lower end Cannon digital SLR (crop sensor) with a couple of relatively cheap lenses but which give me the scope to shoot from wide-angle to zoom. Oh what I would give to have good glass and a full frame camera! This image used a tripod and wireless shutter release.

Inspiration

As I mentioned previously I enjoy shooting at night. Of course I shoot at all times of the day but I especially love to get lost in the night of the city looking for interesting scenes and details, places and spaces. Essentially I am influenced and affected by the urban environment I live in. The cacophony of sounds, traffic, neon lights, concrete, the miscellaneous and random conjunctions of the built environment - shapes, lines and forms, the light and dark and all the shades and tones in between. Sometimes it can be overwhelming and leaves me feeling detached or unsettled by the impersonal nature of it all but at the same time I am also endlessly fascinated, intrigued and excited by the city, by exactly the same things that repel me. I deal with it photographically. Using a camera allows me to express the dichotomy of experience within the city and the space to organise the chaos and subsequently reconnect with myself. The above shot is part of a series that attempts to express this experience and which will hopefully reflect similarly in others.

Editing

The majority of the work was done in camera but I have made both broad and local adjustments using both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Typically to tweak highlights, shadows, contrast, colour balance etc. It was challenging to expose the ghostly figure quite right in camera in relation to the rest of the scene so I have darkened the figure slightly with a local adjustment. Looking at this image now I can see further adjustments needed especially in tone and colour but it's difficult to get it right when you usually have a crappy computer monitor to work with.

In my camera bag

As I mentioned earlier I am but a poor photographic student and therefore very limited in the gear I carry. As a general rule I have my Canon and two lenses,(24-70, 80-250) wireless shutter release, spare batteries and memory cards, a variety of ND filters & polariser filter, I shoot a lot of video so also a focus puller, LED ring flash or normal flash, torch, multi-knife, small roll of gaffer tape, and snacks for the road.

Feedback

I don't think its a particularly difficult image to take. It's shot at night in which I have placed myself in frame for part of the exposure, around 20/30 seconds overall. I simply practiced the duration of time I stood within the frame to expose only a shadow of myself and then walked out of frame during the exposure.You're shooting at night so there's no need to worry about capturing the movement of you walking out of the image, especially with a long exposure. No doubt you could photoshop a figure into the image and utilise transparency but I like to experiment directly with the camera and get physical with the environment. The only thing you really need to think about is how you frame the image and subject matter, but most importantly get out there to explore the night, practice patience and 'experiment'.

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Quirkus_Malurkis

Quirkus_Malurkis

Bridge view

Behind The Lens

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