Faking a sunset
Another beautiful (but slightly cooler) weekend meant that it was the perfect time to take another trip into downtown Cleveland for some photography.
My original intention for the evening was to get some better dusk shots of the city skyline. Unlike the last trip, this time I thought ahead enough to bring a tripod so I would be able to get some nice long exposure shots.
Adam S. and I arrived at Tower City around 7:30pm and had some time to kill before the sun was scheduled to set at about 8:15pm. We walked out of the closed Tower City mall (I have yet to encounter someone who knows why all the stores in it close at 7pm) and ventured towards the Veterans Memorial/Detroit-Superior Bridge to see if there was anything interesting there. All we were able to discover were the sleeping bags of some homeless people.
As it was getting closer to sun down, we walked over to where I planned to take some photos. We arrived sooner than expected and still had some time before the sun was low enough to produce good lighting conditions. We walked around a bridge nearby and admired some of the graffiti drawn on the foundations.
Both of us thought it would be cool to get some portrait shots in front of the graffiti so I decided to set up some flashes and shoot a few photos. I experimented with various gels on the lights for effect instead of color correction and I'm satisfied with the results that were produced. The shots that ended up working were ones where I gelled the lights orange, to fake the sunset look (although the sun was setting when we were taking the photos, it was blocked by the concrete foundations so I had to fake it).
After some impromptu portraits, it was time for the main event of long-exposures of the Cleveland skyline. Right as the light in the sky was perfect for photography, a big ship transporting a crane got in between me and the buildings. My shot was ruined.
Granted, it was still pretty cool to see such a gigantic ship up close. I did take some photos of it, but I'm still debating whether I like them or not. If I end up do liking any of them I'll be sure to put them up on my flickr page by the end of the week.
My original intention for the evening was to get some better dusk shots of the city skyline. Unlike the last trip, this time I thought ahead enough to bring a tripod so I would be able to get some nice long exposure shots.
Adam S. and I arrived at Tower City around 7:30pm and had some time to kill before the sun was scheduled to set at about 8:15pm. We walked out of the closed Tower City mall (I have yet to encounter someone who knows why all the stores in it close at 7pm) and ventured towards the Veterans Memorial/Detroit-Superior Bridge to see if there was anything interesting there. All we were able to discover were the sleeping bags of some homeless people.
As it was getting closer to sun down, we walked over to where I planned to take some photos. We arrived sooner than expected and still had some time before the sun was low enough to produce good lighting conditions. We walked around a bridge nearby and admired some of the graffiti drawn on the foundations.
Both of us thought it would be cool to get some portrait shots in front of the graffiti so I decided to set up some flashes and shoot a few photos. I experimented with various gels on the lights for effect instead of color correction and I'm satisfied with the results that were produced. The shots that ended up working were ones where I gelled the lights orange, to fake the sunset look (although the sun was setting when we were taking the photos, it was blocked by the concrete foundations so I had to fake it).
After some impromptu portraits, it was time for the main event of long-exposures of the Cleveland skyline. Right as the light in the sky was perfect for photography, a big ship transporting a crane got in between me and the buildings. My shot was ruined.
Granted, it was still pretty cool to see such a gigantic ship up close. I did take some photos of it, but I'm still debating whether I like them or not. If I end up do liking any of them I'll be sure to put them up on my flickr page by the end of the week.
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=( I thought you were pretty satisfied with the way those skyline pictures came out, boat or no boat... I guess I knew something went wrong when I saw my mug as the subject picture for this entry... =\
At some point, I'd like to see the skyline pictures in high resolution. =)
The progression of mood smileys...
Yeah they looked decent on the back of the camera, but when I looked at them in full size on my computer they didn't look so hot. Oh well, I have three more years here to get that shot.