Pushing Back The Night

[Chris Dodkin]

I headed out yesterday with the Fuji G617 to capture another panoramic shot of the Coronado Bridge at twilight.

The day had been clear, with offshore winds – so I was expecting a clean sky with wonderful grads as the sun set and twilight kicked in.

I hadn’t however counted on my way being blocked by a train – and a big freight train at that – at least fifty HUGE wind turbine blades heading west.


Tilting at Windmills!

This completely killed my shooting window – as I sat watching the railcars inch past, the sky turned from blue to orange to deep blue and black.

By the time the rail-crossing barriers raised, the sun had been down for at least 30 mins.

I raced to the bay, set up my camera, and metered the brightest part of the sky – it read 1 min at f/22.

Using zone, I needed to open up two stops to get the correct exposure, and then another stop to allow for the ND grad filter of the G617.

So using my iPhone as a stopwatch, I got this one shot, exposed at 8 min, using a locking cable release to trigger and hold the shutter.



Now, bear in mind that Fuji warn against using Velvia 50 for any exposure longer than 32 seconds…

So this might be the very upper limit of what I can do for long exposures with this slow film. Although next time, I’ll remember to remove the ND filter to avoid point reflections.

 

[Glenn Clabo]

Wow! No really...WOW!

 

[Pete Askew]

Very impressive Chris. I guess any colour shifts from the extended exposure would have been lost in the scene. The point reflections are interesting.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Looks beautiful. But what are "point reflections"?

 

[Pete Askew]

The ghost light next to each of the street lights caused by light reflecting back into the lens from the inner face of the DN filter.

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Thanks for asking Rob I've learnt something.

Superb Chris in fact stunning i'd say.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Wow! No really...WOW!

Thanks Glenn - pretty much sums up my retain when I got the film onto the lightbox

Very impressive Chris. I guess any colour shifts from the extended exposure would have been lost in the scene. The point reflections are interesting.

Thanks Pete - I think you're right, the green shift get's lost in the scene, and the scanning software.

Looks beautiful. But what are "point reflections"?

Thanks Rob - Every time I forget and leave a filter on at night I see these reflections- usually only around a very bright point source of light - I should know better!

Thanks for asking Rob I've learnt something.

Superb Chris in fact stunning i'd say.

Thanks Julian