Night Photography - Blue Hour II

Water Mill Windmill: f/14 for 15 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 4:47 p.m. EST

Night Photography in the Blue Hour is a lot of fun and the results can be incredibly beautiful with a deep cobalt blue sky starkly offsetting a well lit skyline, bridge, or monument. No extra fancy camera equipment is required. No super expensive lens, remote control, or high tech tripod need to be purchased to get good to great results. Although, I should add, you do need each of those pieces of equipment. My kit includes a Nikon D60 with a Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that came with it, a Nikon remote control and an aluminum Manfrotto tripod, none of which would be considered very "high-end" and I find that it serves me very well. What is required, in my estimation is an investment on the part of the photographer.

Water Mill Windmill: f/14 for 30 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 4:54 p.m. EST

First and foremost, the photographer must know her equipment, how it operates in automatic AND manual modes, and the wonderful marriage of trade-offs between ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed. Armed with that knowledge, there are just a few other things required for Night Photography - Planning, Patience and Tenacity.

As Kent Weakley has taught in his Night Photography class, most blue hour night photography requires sky and artificial lights. On the east end of Long Island it takes some real planning to find places that might be good at l'heure bleue. This is flat farm country, with an emphasis on country, where we don't have a lot of artificial lights and we definitely don't have any skylines or bridges, so I've been focusing on our monuments - things like churches and windmills. Patience comes into play, after you set up, and is needed to endure the trials of anticipation and, at this time of year, falling temperatures. Tenacity is required to keep you on location despite a desire to return to your warm, bright home wafting the wonderful aromas of a well-deserved dinner. You must be steadfast to stay in place until the Blue Hour has come and gone, and headlights are required for your trip home. Pack all of this when you head out to shoot something at the Blue Hour, and you're, more than likely, going to be quite pleased with your results.

Water Mill Windmill: f/4.5 for 30 seconds at ISO 100 taken at 5:10 p.m. EST

 

Comments

[Ally de Groat]

i love those shades of blue- really beautiful!

[Claudia]

Deb, Thanks so much for the comment, wow ... and I'd like to do better!

[Claudia]

Linda, So glad you like these blue hour pics!! I'm so proud.

[Debra]

Your Blue Hour photos are publish-worthy and really beautiful.

[Linda]

Coco - they are beautiful. The Presbyterian church is the Christmas background on my work computer and getting lots of wows!