My First Night Shot

Weeks of scattered showers and occasional rains have turned into pouring rains in this last week. People were experiencing minutes of power shortage, constant rain stream, rushing creek and even flooded streets. I was working on my photos and writing by the window. Rain was just dropping no stop, not even one minute. A few of my yellow roses have their second bloom, but they are beaten up by heavy rain and tender pedals are forced open and dragging down.  Rose is gorgeous at its perfect condition and is often the center of attention, but I had urge to photograph the status of this imperfection. Except when I finally got the shot, I decided to let my evergreen plant drop a few tears and bury it, in my mind.

As a matter of fact, I love stormy weather and heavy rains if those who live in the unprotected area won't suffer the consequence. I love the sound of the raging thunder and the beat of heavy rain.  They are nature sound that transmits energy and power, and in the end, the excitement. I also don't mind to listen to the rain drops falling on the roof and result a sleepless night.

When I was a child, my family lived in a bit less than moderate neighborhood. I loved typhoons (Pacific version of hurricane) even though we children had to wade in water occasionally. Aside from the dramatic sound, I got to listen to my older sibling’s ghost stories. I knew then that they made up some of them, but what the heck, it was fascinating to listen in the dark when power was out and the storm roared and shook the window violently. This is the moment that I won't never wipe it out of my memory.

With my photography partner, we planned to go to Bandon for weekend shoot. As you can imagine, we could not help not to pull out our camera numerous times along the way. By the time when we arrived at the lighthouse area, it was after dusk. We missed the golden hours.  It was not that late, but it was dark and cold, and it’s getting darker quickly. Had hard time to let go and just rest for the day, we put on our heavy coat and pull out our gears. Wanting to be a photographer? shoot under all circumstances, I said to myself.

I don’t have class A gears and I am certainly not technically savvy, not yet.  One thing I do have is my desire to frame and record what I witnessed. No regular blue sky, ocean green, white wave and red/white lighthouse. Instead, at that moment, there was an absolutely tranquil set of scene with multiple colors: charcoal gray, regent blue, pinkish orange and antique white colors. How would we ever finish counting Nature's endless color spectrum?

I am surely not an adventurer at this stage of my life.  I was daring to travel alone around the world with a case full of product samples at early age. But now that 'blind' guts vanished and I don’t even dare to drive to the coast by myself not mentioning to go out and shoot in the nights.   This is my first opportunity to shoot a few in this lovely and peaceful night. (Did you notice that there was a fishing boat down the right side of the horizon? the tiny white spot.)

It’s colder and we could use some food, so we went in one of the few distinguished restaurants, but the food is blend, does not justify for the value. Besides, I think we were both anxious to head out in the night with our cameras and we did immediately when the waitress gave us thanks.

A couple walked by me, and the man said, ‘can you guys really take pictures in the dark like this?’  ‘Yes, we can.’ I meant to take photos in the dark without flash, only relied on street lights and whatever light source was available in the vicinity. The truth is, it is nothing new and many photographers have done it and produced amazing photos, but I have not really tried it myself. I may do it once before and only one shot. 

Here we go, we headed to the boat ramp where we could see some lights. Had tripod set up in the dark and let fun begin. 

Before I explored DSLR with manual or semi-manual settings, I used point and shoot and set Auto on everything.  When it is automatic, mathematics takes in charge and depending on how precise our mathematicians are, we have limited freedom to get what we want. Now with manual adjustments, the whole wild world can be explored at your own pace and at your finger tips.  I have a long way to go before I can just 'play with my fingers', but I am learning whenever I launch myself a new challenge and I love the challenge.

I am a novice for night shots. My fingers are still quite 'stiff'. Walking by the boat dock, I saw a few post lights around and a bit more light shining through restaurant windows. My first shot was fired and it seemed that the area outside the restaurant was on fire. There were lights and reflections bursting everywhere in the scene, it was completely overexposed. For a second, I did not know what to do. Then, I was gradually getting it.

Overwhelmed at first, but when I took a second look. I liked it. The image brought to my mind, a cold night, at a local bar and grill, a cluster of laughters and cheers celebrating New Year's Eve. The joy and high emotion have lit up the building bright orange/gold and the beams pieced through window and created stunning reflections. 

On holiday season, we often cheered out Peace and Joy, and this is exactly that. The silence of the boats (peace) contrasts the 'noise' from inside (joy). At this point, I could not feel the 'noise' and was not completely calm, the two have neutralized each other, and what's left is, Harmony.

On the second day, when we woke up at dawn, day was just breaking, sun was up but it's fading and blending into the cloudy background. Backlight condition is not always ideal, but for me, try it anyway. If my shot is not good enough, I blame on my camera first and next time, I will quietly use different settings for further experiments. I did not start this at my 20's or 30's, so pick up what I have and do what I can. 

There is no shortage of seagulls at the coast, but it is not easy to get good action shots if you don't have a big bag of food with you to attract them. The faithful lighthouse is always there and it glows distinctively at different time of the day, why not to capture their glamour instead.

If you take a look at the last picture, you would know how crazy photographers are sometimes. Freezing in the dark and still not letting go the camera. When passion prevails, nothing can stop it.  

I am so happy that I finally had my first night out to enjoy the nature in the dark and also peek the night environment from a very different prospective. 

Reflections

Spring weather is peeking through the tail end of Winter.  I was excited to spot new life in our yard.  It has been cold and I have spent most of my time in front of computer, I have not walked around to check out my plants and flowers.

I was surprised to see fresh leaves on all my rose bushes. I saw one bud and two blooms from my most favorite Double Delight! They certainly came early this year. My spirit was delightfully lifted.  My curiosity was rising and my expectation getting higher, I walked to the area where I had five Hellebores (Lantern Rose) planted last year. There were lots of new leaves, some flower buds and one flower already bloomed!  This type of flowers look like a lantern, we cannot see its beauty without turning it upwards. The charm of the flower promoted me to go into the house and grab my camera.

But, her face was down, how did I take the shot?  I had to turn it, but I could not hold it with one hand and take the picture using the other.  I needed two hands to shoot close-ups.  My tripod is not low enough and I had to hand hold my camera.  I tried to use one limb to brace the flower, not only that I failed, I broke the flower from the limb completely, ouch. I could sense the tears from her eyes.  I could not end her life like this, I had to do something. So I rushed to get a glass bowl, filled it with water and sat her in there floating. Her pretty face was up and she smiled.

These Hellebores grow very low on the ground,. I intended to take shots from low angle. Guess not, now. My flower looked happy, but I was not because I had not been able to take my pictures.  Oh, well, I did not intend to shoot flowers this morning anyway, I planned to photo trees in my neighborhood using my wild angle lens. I like to see the effects by placing my camera in different positions.

While I was ready to step into the house, I passed by aunt Lucile's dark blue car. It rained earlier and there were water drops remained on the body.  The reflection of the trees was hovering the back window and rear body, the grayish silhouette had a subtle beauty and looked almost surreal.

Don't know why, I decided to place the flower on rear end of the blue vehicle and the reflection stunned me. It looked absolutely beautiful... For a long time, my macro lens has always been focused on the center of flowers. I tend to make every attempt to go closer and closer because I seemed not be able to see enough of it. I took a few shots as how I would usually shoot it, but today I seemed not too interested in looking through the 'microscope' to see the intricate part, I was drawn to just look at this flower and her counterpart, the reflection.

Instead of framing the flower to cover its vivid details, I decided to change a different angle and had only a tiny bit of the intricate stigma shown. It is not something that I would usually do, but I am glad that I did it.

I was down the ground in order that I could shoot from a low angle. Because it was low, I ended up picking the reflections of the surrounding elements, trees and rain drops.  My flower was, at this moment , floating on water pond and the trees became ripple stripes and rain drops looked bubbling. I was very happy with what I saw. I believe my flower was thrilled now that I had brought her to my fantasy land and she in turn had brightened my day.

I live in the area where deer munch on almost everything.  The plants I bought from deer proof list could be chewed down overnight.  My next door neighbor planted three (supposed to be deer-proof) bushes with stunning pink flowers one late afternoon. Second morning when I opened the window of my office and looked out, I saw their entire family were standing outside in the rain and moaning by the flower bushes. I only saw green, nothing pink, at that point.

One thing I can brag about is, my lantern rose is truly deer proof. They have sustained a year without any deer tracks by it. I like it also for this important reason.