Empress Place

Empress Place

© 2005 Martin Liew

Empress Place

This is The Empress Place. The government has certainly changed the buildings in that whole area Empress Place has turned into a western fine food restaurant and lately they have had just completed internal renovation. Perhaps it has changed management and into other sort of F&B business.

It was a full moon night but the moon was obscured by dense clouds in the night sky. The building was under the full moon charm which I was enchanted by its overall beauty. Without much ado, I took up this position and exposed for 2 bracket shots. This is the first take which is a lot better than the second one. Any further delay, the moon would have set down behind the building and the whole night beauty would have been gone.

This is another exposure with good tonality and contrast. The front structure of the building and balcony was brightly lit by the opposite lamp posts and/or spotlights, with cast shadows on the main entrance. Followed by the graduated dim-lighted area of the building and its roof. Everything falls nicely into the Zone system.

Shanghai TLR • KODAK TMAX400 • 3min 36secs

POINT TO WATCH • The image was cropped in too tight on the left side at the time of exposing. I could have move back a little more but the unwanted items on the foreground will be included which can quite messy. • If only the clouds are more in fluffy shapes than dissipated that acts like a layer of diffuser. Otherwise the night sky will be brighter with a more dramatic impact. • The strong highlight on the right side window was caused by the opposite lamp post light reflection which seems kinda distracting here.