Through the Eye: Night Photography

Night Photography..
"This refers to photographs taken outdoors between dusk and dawn." (quote from Wikipedia) The technique(s) used for this is either using artificial light to "paint" or using long exposure.

Night photography is the first genre I experiment with when I first started taking photographs. You may be asking "Why night photography for a beginner?". Well..it uses a set of techniques and skills very different from the ones usually used for photographs taken in the day. At night, the city transforms into a different world. With limited light at night, it inspires one to be creative in using whatever light available to compose photographs. There are some requirements like tripod and shutter release to take such photographs but no hard and fast rule to follow to take great photographs. I believe that some compositions are even unique.

One of the popular places many people like to go to is the Marina Waterfront in Singapore where one can see with full view of the Singapore central business district lighted up.

Singapore Skyline..taken before the development of Marina Sands and the floating platform. (film)

Besides city skyline, I also take pictures along the streets. The streets in Singapore will be specially decorated for major festivals like this Serangoon Road during Deepavali celebrations.

Serangoon Road at night during Deepavali celebrations (film)

By playing with different settings and exposures, the same subject can portray different "feelings" to the viewer.

Esplanade at night with shorter exposure time (film)

Esplanade at night with longer exposure time (film)

I also follow events like the annual National Day Parade celebrations. As I am not lucky enough to get the tickets to attend the parade live, I often stay from a distance, watching the celebrations from afar. In one of the items performed, there was one which used a type of kite that was fitted with coloured lights and flown using remote-controlled motors.

Light patterns from one of the performances.. NDP 2007 (film)

The other style in night photography which much debate has been going on - whether it should be considered night photography or some other classification. In my perspective, I will classify it as night photography as it involves use of similar techniques for night photography. The following was taken during one of the NDP celebrations with multiple exposures. This is one of my favourite works on fireworks.