November’s Assignment- Night & Light
With less and less daylight ahead during the encroaching fall and winter seasons, the night time is the right time to break out your camera. The beauty that can be achieved with long nighttime exposures will open up a whole new world for a photographer. Have you ever taken a cityscape photograph at night? Or of the circling stars above to create star trails? Ever attempt to write your name with a flashlight or “paint” objects with light…all while in the dark? All of these types of images are possible because these are results your camera can capture that the human eye simply cannot see as a finished product. In order to be successful in your experimentation, you may consider using a tripod for this assignment…or maybe a sturdy surface to minimize shaking while using long shutter speeds. Or you might just want to let yourself go crazy and play with light in an abstract sort of way. There is no “wrong” way, so whatever method you’d like to try out, we encourage you to get outside after dark and see what you can come up with. This is all about having fun and being creative. A headlamp or flashlight is handy for these types of adventures… not to mention for safety purposes. :)
If you’re needing a little bit of a headstart, we’d like to remind you of two previously posted articles on creating star trails, written by our very own Forest Chaput de Saintonge.
Star Trail Images – part 1
Star Trail Images – part 2
Submitting images:
Please send all submissions to bobm@rmsp.com. All images should be in jpeg format, 72 ppi, with the longest side of your image measuring 600px.
Deadline:
November 15, 2011
Submitted images will appear in an online gallery on Paper Airplanes, RMSP’s blog on November 18, 2011. All images will be used in the online gallery for this specific assignment only and will be copyrighted to the photographer. An email confirmation that your submission was received will be sent by November 16th. If you do not receive the email confirmation, please contact bobm@rmsp.com.
Tags | assignment, Night Photography, star trails
About the Author
I attended a weekend class with Tim Cooper on night photography. He pointed out that you could be a target for nasty people, who might be tempeted by your expensive photo equipment. So… Be careful out there.
Tim is correct, Scott. We whole-heartedly encourage folks to be aware of their surroundings at all times when attempting photographing at night. Always good to bring a buddy or two along and plenty of batteries/flashlights!