random night shots

dean messenger

dean messenger

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Dean
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just a few random night shots while ive been sorting out images

1. Brighton Bandstand

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2. View Down the Thames of Shard and Tower Bridge

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3. Dungeness Lighthouse

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4. St pauls

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5. St Pauls Done

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6. The Dickens Inn

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7. The Shard from Tower Bridge

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8. St Pauls across the Bridge

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nice set, i have been meaning to get up early to take some night scenes...but with the summer stay up late is almost better than getting up early. :)

might have to wait till late autumn...
 
most of these are taken when doing an all nighter. generally arriving in London around 11pm and staying until sunrise. not for the faint hearted strlling around at that time of night but always worth it for the experience of seeing the city come alive
 
Superb photography. 1,2,4,6 my faces. well Done.
 
I like your photos

All night out in London, tell me more! were you on your own? were many people about.. any close calls? :)
 
dancook said:
I like your photos

All night out in London, tell me more! were you on your own? were many people about.. any close calls? :)
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All those (London) shots are in central London. You are unlikely to have any big problems there.

I'd be impressed if someone dared to try it in Brixton or Lewisham though.
 
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just me and the OH. done around 4 all nighters in London now. normally start at Battersea and work our way down to westminster then along the south bank all the way to tower bridge.
generally we take the car and i know several places to park for free along the route so makes it easy.
had a few drunks stop and chat and one guy in a suit started out polite then got rather loud and abusive. the advantages of night photography is having a great big heavy redsnapper tripod which doubles up as a handy self defence weapon!
as for number of people about at 3am along the south bank we have bumped into one or two other photographers and you get a few people roaming around but pretty much its quiet.
think ive seen more security and Police than i have people at that time of night and by sticking to certain routes am always in a pretty well lit area and know where not to go.
 
btw have u ever had any troubles from the security shooting around london assembly?

also able to use tripods in that area?
 
ive roamed around brixton at 4am in the morning and lewisham isnt to bad.. i walked through the riots that happened in croydon on way home from work so know full well the dangers . if theres anywhere i would avoid at night it would west croydon and tottenham lol. everywhere im fair game with .
 
dean messenger said:
ive roamed around brixton at 4am in the morning and lewisham isnt to bad.. i walked through the riots that happened in croydon on way home from work so know full well the dangers . if theres anywhere i would avoid at night it would west croydon and tottenham lol. everywhere im fair game with .
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I'm picking out the "too bad" part lol.

One thing I would point out - anyone who doesn't know London (as in who doesn't live there or who hasn't worked there), do your homework before you decide to run of at night and take photo's. If you stick to the tourist spots or central you will be fine. However there are parts where you would get your head kicked in and would be robbed. Your unlikely to find these places unless you went looking for them, however I think it's worth pointing out.
 
only place ive been hassled by security was at Katherines Dock.. around 2-3am in morning theres the sundial /timepiece sculpture there and i was taking a shot of it looking across to to tower bridge. ( shot attached below ) ... security came up and asked me to take down my tripod as it was a health and safety hazard and someone could trip over it... ,,, i looked around.. not a soul in sight and told him well if anyone comes along and they do by some freak of nature happen to walk into me and my tripod they can personally sue me and carried on what i was doing while he walked off in a huff mumbling into hes radio.

only otehr time was around 5am at thames barrier.. was having a 30 min snooze in the car after doing an all nighter and waiting for 7am sunrise to get some shots at the barrier. secuirty came and tapped on window to see what we were up to. once i explained they were fine but said we couldnt take pics of the buildings next to the barrier as they were security buildings and wasnt allowed which was fair enough.
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one thing also when i do night shots i dont have a camera bag. i take one lens and keep camera around my neck under coat on and out of sight. tripod is kept in its bag ( no markings ) so could just as easy be a musical instrument/ snooker cue/gun etc ) to the passerby.
I also dont stay in one spot for 5 minutes and try to keep on the move constantly scanning for people and if i do see someone acting a little dodgy tend to move on pretty quickly.
Also by going by car normally theres much fewer parking restrictions at night so its easy to stay within a 5 minute radius of it as well.
its also good to know where security guards patrol or where there huts are cos though they can be a right royal pain they can also be a life saver in times of trouble as well.
 
lol i thought wood green was suburbia :p
actually i would avoid pretty much all of north west London ( wembley, harrow and the like ) and tend to stick to the central areas.. anywhere around south bank, oxford circus, and pretty much all along the thames from battersea to tower bridge are pretty safe with only the odd rambling drunk.
one of the biggest fears alot of people have are the homeless but in fact ive had many a chat with a few and got em a cup of tea or a maccy D burger and most are just people who have had a run of bad luck and misfortune. you get the odd smackhead but again very easy to spot and avoid.

Also if you do go to London by public transport make sure you have travel card cos with buses constantly running all over the place all night its very easy to just jump on a bus if you need to get away from any possible trouble
 
This is a pretty cool thread. I've never done it myself but for anyone interested I watched this the other day which was quite good and gave you an insight into it:

Nice photo's though Dean. Do you have any problems getting an exposure time at night? Also do you use manual focus? Another boring (probably question) is do you bother with taking more than one exposure and then cutting it all together in photoshop to balance brighter parts of an image?
 
some are bracketed some are single shots.. in fact shot number 2 was taken using an ND filter added for an even longer exposureto get the water smoother though in general i shoot at around f/8 for optimum sharpness , ISO 100 and then due to the amount of light in the city ( even at night it can be very bright ) exposures are between 5-30 secs . i always shoot in manual and use AF 99% of time unless i can get a focus lock and then will take several shots from same spot making small adjustments and always shooting in live view.
 
just throwing this last one into the mix, purely as its been my biggest seller and still one of my fave night shots.

The only real disappointment for me is the reflections were cut off a little and i keep meaning to go back and reshoot it to get the full reflection in.
still someone purchased a large canvas of this in the second sepia toned one for £390 and its sold over 30 times so im not complaining to much !

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Good advice dean. Definitely consealing the camera would have its benefits. Not so bad when there are people around but when it is that quiet and desolate it is prudence.
 
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