API instructor Mark Bowie, author of the e-book, The Light of Midnight: Photographing the Landscape at Night, recently led an intensive workshop on night photography, based in the Olympic village of Lake Placid. He covered many facets of nocturnal shooting, including specialized techniques for determining nighttime exposures, composing and focusing in the dark, photographing the night landscape in relation to the heavens, and techniques for processing nighttime images. Shooting sessions in the village provided an infinite array of subjects. Neon colors were reflected in rain puddles. Long exposures captured vehicle lights, storefronts, and visitors’ umbrellas in bold, saturated colors.
Bowie writes, “Standing in pitch darkness along the weedy shores of Connery Pond near Lake Placid at eleven o’clock at night, stars shone between puffy clouds, the Big Dipper prominent. It was warm and a little humid. Looming above the far shore, the summit of Whiteface Mountain was encased in shifting fog. When the fog parted, the weather station light beamed like a beacon. The moon rose behind us, illuminating the foreground grasses. We shot exposures from seconds-long to twelve minutes, the resulting images capturing the stunning beauty of clouds streaming overhead, trees on the far shore reflected with precision in the pond, the stars shining through the moving veil of clouds — all set against a backdrop of indigo-blue sky. Surely these are some of the most spectacular night images ever captured in the Adirondacks, and I came away more enamored with night photography than ever before.”
If you’re interested in learning how to photograph the night, consider joining Mark for a one-day seminar and night shoot at AutumnColor Imaging in Worcester, Massachusetts on September 10th. For details, click here. Mark will be conducting more night photography workshops in 2012. Our new schedule will be posted soon.
