Long Exposure Photography: Electrifying Nightscape
*Awarded 1st Place in Photography: Creative Exposure at The University of Houston's RedFest 2023*
The Electrifying Nightscape series contains some of my favorite photos I’ve taken since entering the Digital Media program. It truly encapsulates the energy, or electricity (so to speak), of Houston at night. Here is some background on the photo…
I wanted to find a way to capture the energy of Houston at night. However, simply taking photos of the city lacked the liveliness of the night that I longed to capture.
Instead, of settling for images of lit buildings or traffic intersections, I had the idea to experiment with long exposure. I didn’t want a conventional long exposure photo where a photographer uses a tripod to capture the movement of the city over minutes of time (although those types are very interesting and fun to photograph).
I wanted to capture the liveliness from the street (the hub of the city’s energy). So I had a friend drive me around Houston; I sat in the passenger seat, set my shutter speed to a shutter of around 3 seconds, and snapped different sights through the windows of the car. I experimented with different hand motions while taking photos, but with “Electrifying Nightscape,” I angled the lens forward toward the incoming traffic and streetlights and held as still as possible. However, the bumps in the road caused the camera to shake just the slightest, resulting in the “lightning-like” lines emerging from the lower center of the photo. And I couldn't be happier with the result.
