Today’s Featured Image of the Week is one I shot in London of Elizabeth Tower – or what we sometimes call “Big Ben”. Yesterday I learned that it was going to be undergoing a massive four year refurbishment. I was lucky enough to see it in person in 2016 and I thought it was absolutely awesome. I can’t imagine it looking any better from the outside – but in four years I’m planning to return so I can see how it looks after all the work is done. In this article I’ll talk a bit about the equipment I used and the settings I chose to get the shot.
The World looks Different at Night
I love getting out at night to capture images. As beautiful as some sights are in the day – they often have a completely different look at night. Sometimes it’s about the lighting and sometimes it’s because there are less people out at night. Sometimes it’s because there’s just a different energy you can really feel at night. For me that was the difference on my trip to London and Paris. The people who are out at night in those incredible European capitals are just incredible.
Washington, DC is no different for me. I love getting out to shoot DC in the daytime:
But somehow everything changes when the sun sets:
In London the landmarks looked really cool in the daytime:
But when I went on a night time photowalk I was blown away by Elizabeth Tower all lit up:
Talk about a night and day difference!
Equipment and Settings
To get the shot I used my Sony a6000, my super sharp Sony 35mm f1.8 lens, a travel tripod and my Sony wired remote. For my Photowalk I carried my camera on a Black Rapid curve strap, my additional lenses in a Think Tank Lens Changer 25 and my misc accessories in a Think Tank Stuff It (both carried on my Think Tank Pro Speed Belt). To keep dust off my sensor I used my Giottos Medium Rocket Air Blaster. All of my images were captured on Lexar 633x 64gb SD Cards.
My camera was set to f8 with an ISO of 200 so the camera chose a 1.6 second shutter speed. The final image was edited using both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
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