Layered

Layered (The Daily Post)

This week, let’s explore the interplay of texture and depth.

Normally I park in the Spring Street parking deck, but tonight I found street parking on Witherspoon Street. This was unusual. On a normal busy night, street parking is hard to find in Princeton. This was further proof that tonight would be a slow night.

Layered (The Daily Post)

This week, let’s explore the interplay of texture and depth.

My wife came with me. Earlier in the week, I had mentioned to her that I wanted to go into Princeton. I had an eye for the weekly photo challenge. I put it off all week, but on Thursday I finally said to her, "Let's do it tonight".

I was disappointed. There was much less traffic than I expected, and the streets seemed empty of people. I thought that the streets would be filled with local, tourist and students walking around and visiting the local bars and restaurants. But not this night.

Normally I park in the Spring Street parking deck, but tonight I found street parking on Witherspoon Street. This was unusual. On a normal busy night, street parking is hard to find in Princeton. This was further proof that tonight would be a slow night.

Why did any of that matter? My vision for the weekly challenge was to photograph the cars and people walking by on Nassau Street. We walked up Witherspoon Street and crossed Nassau Street to the gates of Princeton University.

I set up the tripod, framed the shot of Hamilton Jewelers, and waited. The traffic was light, and there was only a little foot traffic. My wife and I conversed with passing students who were curious as what I was doing. It must have seemed strange to them; a man with a camera on a tripod photographing what seemed to be space.

I shot at 10, 15, 20, and 30 seconds exposures. My wife and I walked over to Washington Road, and I took a few shots of the water feature near the Woodrow Wilson School. We watched a young woman walk barefoot through the water. Some students were sitting and conversing on the far end, enjoying the chill, but not cold, air.

We slowly walked back to the car.

layered, night photography
Corner of Witherspoon & Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ

In Lightroom, I made my picks and pulled them into Photoshop. I blended the layers -- two images -- to make this one image. The final image is the featured image for this post.

layered, night photography
Corner of Witherspoon & Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ

Each Wednesday, The Daily Prompt Photo Challenge provides a theme for creative inspiration. Participants take photographs based on their interpretation of the theme and post them on their blog anytime before the following Wednesday.

Dark

Sometimes photography is like that. I have a vision of what I want to achieve. But either because of poor planning, less than ideal conditions or lack of knowledge, I don't get what I want. Sometimes, I have to make the best of what I have in front of me. Step out of the creative darkness and into the light.

My initial thought after Frank posted this week's photo challenge and seeing his photo was, "go grab some shots of the Shea Rowing Center." The centre is lit at night, and I thought I would get some good pictures of the lights of the centre illuminating the darkness along Faculty Road.

I planned to leave work and head to Troon Brewing, have dinner next door at Brick Farm Tavern, get home change my clothes and head out to Washington Road for some night photography at the C. Bernard Shea Rowing Center.

I parked on the eastbound side of Washington Road just past the bridge. One thing I had considered was how dark it might be along Washington Road. I took a headlamp with me to light my path as I walked along the road to the bridge. It was dark, but I was surprised by how many cars drove by at this time of night. It was after 9 PM.

I set up my camera halfway on the bridge. It was challenging to focus in the dark. I took a few test shots and started to regret that I did not set up earlier when the light was good. Eventually, I got an image sharp enough. I captured a few photos, experimenting with shutter speeds between 15 to 30 seconds. I was disappointed by the results when I chimped on the back of my Nikon. The images were not sharp, and the composition was "meh".

Frustrated, I turned around to watch the cars go by. What was I going to do? This field trip was a bust. The marching band would soon be back from supporting the football team at the game in Franklin, and my daughter would be calling me to pick her up from the high school. Time was running out. My inner voice said, "photography what you see".

So I did. I experimented with varying the shutter speed and the timing of the triggering of the shutter for the arrival and departure of the cars. And then I went home and imported the images into Adobe Lightroom.

My initial feeling was correct. My images of the boathouse were uninteresting. I didn't like any of theme. I deleted them all except for this one. I wanted to show you what the boathouse looks like.

Dark, Princeton, Faculty Road, Boathouse
The C. Bernard Shea Rowing Center is the boathouse for the Princeton University rowing programs. Located on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey, the center consists of the Class of 1887 Boathouse and the Richard Ottesen Prentke ‘67 Training Center.

However, I was thrilled with the images of the light trails. I picked my favourite one, tweaked a few settings in Lightroom, and the result is what you see in the post header.

Sometimes photography is like that. I have a vision of what I want to achieve. But either because of poor planning, less than ideal conditions or lack of knowledge, I don't get what I want. Sometimes, I have to make the best of what I have in front of me. Step out of the creative darkness and into the light.

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.