Gleam - Festival of light Derby

I read about the Festival of Light in a newsletter that I receive at work.  This is part of an arts festival in the city of Derby. It presented an opportunity for me to practice photographing buildings at night.

Specific techniques to be practiced include low light photography and use of a tripod.  Although image capture would be colour the intention was to look at the possibility of B & W conversion to look at replicating the feel of some of the works of Brassi that I had seen during research.

This is a public event so it will be necessary to be aware of the public as well as equipment when considering safety.  Weather is cold so warm clothing required.

The Gleam festival was using buildings within the Cathedral Quarter of Derby as the backdrop for a series of light shows.  In order to capture elements of the moving light show I would use longer exposures 15-30seconds.

The camera that I am using has image stabilisation built into the body.  As I will be using a tripod this is to be turned off. 

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event i

15mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO400

The buildings were being illuminated by a series of moving lights.  By using long exposures of 15-30 seconds it allowed the overall pattern to be recorded.  I had read about a similar technique in a photography magazine where specific sections of a building had been highlighted by firing a flash-gun a different sections of the building while the shutter remained open.  It has proved very effective with these images.  The lenth of exposure has allowed a lot of detail to be captured, however the clouds have become blurred as they have moved.

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event ii

15mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event iii

25mm, 15sec, F86, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event iv

17mm, 15sec, F8, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event v

14mm, 15sec, F8, ISO400

Derby Cathedral

Gleam event vi

14mm, 30sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event vii

19mm, 4sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event viii

33mm, 4sec, F8, ISO200

Gleam event ix

14mm, 1sec, F5.6, ISO400



Gleam event x

42mm, 4sec, F5.6, ISO400

Gleam event xi

26mm, 30sec, F8, ISO100

Gleam event xii

31mm, 15sec, F5.6, ISO100

Focusing the camera manually at night proved to be a challenge.

Gleam event xiii

31mm, 8sec, F5.6, ISO100

Gleam event xiv

32mm, 4sec, F8, ISO400

Barrow upon Trent

The forecast for the weekend is mixed, best Saturday morning - getting greyer and wetter as the day / weekend progresses. 

The aim is to capture external images images from around the site of the church at Barrow upon Trent.  This church dates back to the 11th century.  The architecture is less ornate than later buildings and is early Norman in style.  There have been some alterations over time, but most are old and form part of the character of the building.

The site has been visited on a number of occasions to gain an understanding of what is there and how colours chnge with differing light conditions.  The site is open with some trip hazards otherwise fairly safe paths. I have spoken with a keyholder for the church and have arranged access at a later date to photograph the inside of the building in exchange for access to any images.  This visit is to capture external images.  Equipment to be used is Olympus EP-1 + standard kit lens, Poloriser and tripod. 

The building is of a pale stone and the aim was to enhance colour, taking advantage of early morning light.  In practice, although the morning was bright it had characteristics of later in the year, being very pale, with none of the autumn gold that I had hoped for.  The cirrus clouds were almost wintry, closely followed by a solid bank of cloud that indicated an approaching weather front.

This first image is taken of a gate that is set into the curtain wall of the cemetery.

Barrow upon Trent i

25mm, 1 sec, F5.6, ISO100

There was a very short window of time where the light added some colour to the stone of the church.

Barrow upon Trent ii

19mm, 1/4th, F11, ISO100

Some of the history is there to be seen by those who have the ability.

Barrow upon Trent iii

33mm, 1/2sec, F8, ISO100

Barrow upon Trent iv

20mm, 1/2sec, F16, ISO100

The sky became wintry.  I was not able to achieve what I had hoped with the building.  It did give an opportunity to attempt photographing silhouettes against the sky.  Used small aperture to increase depth of field and to allow elatively slow exposure without bleaching the sky.

Barrow upon Trent v

14mm, 1/15th, F16, ISO100

Barrow upon Trent vi

22mm, 1/3rd, F16, ISO100