Baby it's cold outside

The other day I was flipping through the blogs I read when I came across this article on Twilight Photos. I read it, and then read it again, and thought that it might be an interesting exercise.

For those who don't care to read an blog article about photography, the author makes the point that many people take photos of sunsets and then move on. But the best photographs near twilight happen 30-40 minutes after the sun has set.

So I checked Environment Canada for the sunset time (5:48pm) and left work today at 5:00. I headed over to Victoria Park and found myself a good spot to setup (I was near that square building facing due west). And then I waited. And waited.

I took about 60 photos, all of the same frame with varying degrees of light and exposure. At 6:30 I called it quits - 75 minutes in the same spot was long enough. I took a few other shots on the way to the bus terminal and hoped that I had a winner. I grabbed some groceries (had burgers tonight, yum!), shoveled the driveway again and looked at my photos. I think the author was right.

All that time and cold and this is the best of the 60 shots, taken 40 minutes after the sun had set.



On the way to the bus, I grabbed this shot of the clock tower. It took 2 minutes to set up and get the exposure right. If it weren't for the previous 75 minutes spent in the freezing cold, standing near a camera and tripod, trying to stay warm, I would say that I like this shot better than one above.