Night photography

I'm often a bit of an insomniac. I got my start taking night shots in the late 1980's. I'd venture out into the night in search of what I could find to photograph. I often found that beauty not observed during the day reveals itself with camera and tripod at night. A bland easy-to-overlook boulder during daylight hours can become transformed into a glowing "object d'art" in night photos.

Time is definitely a quotient in my night image making. I rely on low light levels to achieve much of the look and feel in the images. Many of these exposures can be as long as thirty minutes. I then add in colored light with a strong battery powered spotlight during the exposure time. A lot of non-photographers think it impossible that most of the images were made at two in the morning. They can’t believe light actually is bouncing around out there at that time. I tell them it’s the “dose of light” that makes the difference. My lens is just taking it all in at a much slower rate than during the day.

Read an article about my night photography published in The Washington City Paper.