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chromasia.com

I went out night shooting this evening with our nine year old (who has recently expressed an interest in photography), and didn't manage to produce any of the shots I was after. I tried one that included the bench from this shot, the silhouette of my camera on its tripod, and me leaning against the railing looking out to sea. And I thought it might be quite a cool shot. However, my wife's comment when she saw it was "were you having a pee?" – clearly I need to think about composing myself somewhat differently next time ;-)

I also tried a few shots at the southernmost end of the promenade, where it's much, much darker, and totally failed to get any of them in focus or properly composed. Night photography is definitely an art that I need to practice.

Anyway, the only shot that I think is worth putting up is this one, and I'll be interested to hear if you can work out what it is. The only clue you're going to get is in the EXIF data below ;-)

capture date
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
cropped?
8.48pm on 25/11/04
Canon 20D
EF 17-40 f/4L USM
40mm (64mm equiv.)
f/6.3
30
shutter priority
+0.0
evaluative
100
no
RAW
rotated 180°
 
3x2 + night shots
comment by Thinh Thang at 11:55 PM (GMT) on 25 November, 2004

Wow! Another illusionistic photo! When you look at it straight on, your eyes want to focus on the rough stuff, but when you look harder you realize that the rough stuff doesn't connect with the bars at the bottom of the photo. Putting two and two together, you realize that you have to focus on the chrome parts instead.

Makes me dizzy staring at it too long :)

Is it the back and seat of the benches?

comment by djn1 at 12:04 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

LOL - that didn't take long! Yes, it's a shot of one of the benches :-)

comment by Jarod at 01:14 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Very cool. Looks almost computer generated.

comment by nathan at 03:10 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

very slick. its the benches right?

comment by Lyle at 07:13 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Yeah, I'd figured it was the same benches as earlier in the week. In some ways I actually prefer this shot, the abstract nature of it and so on.

I did originally think it was the top of a walkway over a railway bridge, but then got my perspective sorted out. *grin*

comment by zimny at 07:21 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

very nice, very sharp. nice ;-)
best to look on with the dark background. i have the same problem with focus when shooting at night.

comment by Turfdigger at 07:34 AM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

The way the light strikes the bench makes its texture and material all the more captivating. Great abstract!

comment by LunaSol at 02:10 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

really cool.... is it shot from underneath the bench?

comment by Donna McMahon at 04:27 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Love it!

comment by suzysue at 04:48 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

I like the perspective of this shot and was only able to distinguish what it was by tipping my head upside down!

comment by Carlos Johnson at 04:58 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Nice patterns.

An off-topic question: How do you extract the EXIF info ? Movable Type Pluging? PHP? Manually?

Thanks and sorry for my frequent questions.

comment by darrell at 08:02 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Very nice abstract image. Do you suffer funny looks from passers by?

comment by djn1 at 11:00 PM (GMT) on 26 November, 2004

Thanks everyone.

LunaSol: no, the picture was turned upside down ;-)

Carlos: manually :-/

darrell: no, at least not at that time of night and this time of year. I think we only saw two or three people during the hour we were out.

comment by Hemal Trivedi at 05:04 PM (GMT) on 29 November, 2004

lovely lights, the shades are just right. i guess thats how abstract can be so beautiful. its like a feast for the eyes.