Thoughts On My Night Photography

Ghost Town
© 2013 Martin Liew Photography
Nocturnal info: Nikon D300 on Tokina 11-16mm at 30 seconds exposure. Post-processed and cropped in Photoshop. Monochrome conversion in Silver Efex Pro 2.

Well needless to say, it's almost 6 months now since my last blog post in March and once again I'm on hiatus and it's getting longer than the first one. So am I getting lazy or got driven away with daily work life and other activities that I forgot all about it? No not at all. Absolutely no. That doesn't mean I'm going to give up writing blogs here. No excuses for my absence though I was juggling between my day job and doing lots of street photography on most weekends and a few freelance photography assignments along the way. Busy? Yes of course and I'm enjoying it.

Well tonight I want to share some thoughts on my night photography and here's a teaser night photo, shown above. Make the jump to read on.

Abandoned Playground

It seems like I'm on a hiatus again, for 3 months since my last nocturnal activity last November. So I'm back again with a little blog post tonight.

In March 2012, I embarked on a night photography project on old school playgrounds and I took the opportunity to make some night images on film. I recall my last black and white film night photography took place 2 years ago in July at the defunct Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.

In fact I got so many back-logged negatives that are developed but not scanned. It's Easter today and so I took the time to tidy up and edit all those negatives. I chose to scan this abandoned playground as shown below.

Abandoned Playground

On that same night after exposing a few frames, I switched to digital and made some interesting light-paintings.

How interesting it is to compare the images with each using different focal length. For monochrome, it's simplicity and the visual induces a mood with mystery and tranquility. For colors, it's vibrant, playful and whimsical. Both medium have its own visual impact which I like very much.

Well, more negatives on night photography are yet to be scanned and in the next couple of months I would spend more time editing and scanning the best work to be featured on my website. Will definitely post some updates here. So stay tuned.

I hope you enjoy viewing the three photographs shown tonight. Good night!