Therapy?

Therapy?

At the time of writing, I'm employed Monday to Friday night shifts. It's a family necessity but unfortunately a less than ideal situation for an enthusiastic night photographer. I've been absent from the streets with my camera and haven't posted on socials. My website blog hasn't seen an update for a while. My job is physically taxing and my free weekend evenings have seen me wrestling with taking photos or spending time with my son and long-suffering spouse whilst resting in preparation for a new working week. The 'rest' option has been winning and I'm missing my regular nocturnal shoot. Now, I have heard many YouTubers, influencers and tweeters mention that sometimes pushing yourself out to shoot when you least feel like it can bear fruit and I totally get it but my exhaustion (hey, I've been busier than Ant and Dec!) coupled with the very late arrival of dusk in mid-summer, has seen me put away the Canon RP for weeks. This has to change.

It has been a hotter-than-usual summer season too and although carrying the required kit around the city is tiring, the wonderful aerial colours on display at sunset have been exceptional lately and I can see this heavenly display from my work location on the banks of Belfast lough during breaks. Skies at dusk are clear and blue and I make a decision to get the hell out of the house on a balmy Sunday night in the hope that these colours are replicated again. It's June 11th and I am heading to Clarendon dock at the lightest time of the year in Belfast. I've been here before and have a desire to capture a pano or two. There's a view across the river Lagan towards the SSE Odyssey arena from Donegall quay and the sunset from behind me is reflecting in the many panes of glass in the ice hockey/ entertainment venue. The Obel apartment block (at the time of writing, the tallest in Ireland) is reflecting the evening light too and light reflections from other examples of Belfast's architecture are casting foreground details onto the river. I set up my tripod at a fence near the new Belfast Telegraph and check out the view. I take eleven shots that span from the Arc apartments and panning around to the riverbank path on the quayside I stand on and I even add myself to the pathway as a bit of human interest. No mean feat as the exposure is 4 seconds at f11! Later, whilst editing at home in Lightroom, I add a bit of golden colour temperature to the completed panorama as my Tungsten white balance setting cast an overbearing blue feel to the shot. Auto white balance is fine a lot of the time but in a pano it is especially important to have a constant white balance that is exact across all images used. Perhaps I'll make a custom setting to aid me in my night shots. Paul Farry, @photogenius on YouTube has recently released a tutorial video on how to do this.

I decided to explore more around the Clarendon dock/ dry dock areas and panoramas appear in front of me that I hadn't seen on previous visits. I seemed to be able to see them with a renewed clarity and even my composition skills seemed sharper than before. I truly enjoyed the experience and was totally unaware of the time flying by. Haydn Pederson (@HaydenPedersen), an Australian photographer on YouTube, has just released a video taliking about how photography has acted as therapy for him and I totally concur with his perspective on the art form. I set up a couple of panos that I was very happy with and was taking full advantage of the twilight skies and wispy cloud to add sky detail and ambient light to the maritime mile scenes. I then headed to the City Quays building which has a set of well illuminated steps leading to a seated area and waited for a Belfast citizen to pass. None did! No wonder! I looked at my watch. It was a quarter to midnight! Looks like I better add myself to the image as the required human interest and as I froze on the stairway during the half a second exposure at f2.8, I tripped the shutter with my remote trigger. If someone is pixel peaking at the image, it just looks like a set of car keys I'm carrying! I've missed the pursuit of a pleasing image and trying to better my composition skills in an area (well-trodden by me) is a challenge but a pleasurable one.

It's good to have a break from our responsibilities in life just to recharge the batteries and getting back out again tonight, image capturing, has been both rewarding and therapeutic. I'll try not to leave it so long next time.....