São Bento Railway Station
For most people, longer nights mean cocooning at home — preferably in front of a fireplace. For some of us, longer nights mean tripod1 time. I didn’t use it for any of these shots, though, which makes night shooting more challenging but that’s also part of the draw.
I took these photos after seeing a concert at Porto Cathedral, while the night was warm enough for standing in place and holding the camera very still. After years of night shooting outdoors in frigid Toronto winters when sometimes my fingers felt like they would fall off, I’m very grateful for Porto’s mild ones. The other thing I’m grateful for, related to warmer temperatures, is that I can move from outdoors to indoors without the lens immediately fogging up. This used to drive me bananas! The greater the temperature differential (sometimes around 30 degrees or more), the longer it would take for the lens to adjust and de-fog. The only way around this in cold temperatures is to keep the camera in a bag during the transition period of outdoors to indoors, but this situation requires diligence and there’s still some waiting around. It kills spontaneity.
Anyway, three cheers for mild Portuguese winters! They’re far from tropical, yet very bearable for this Canadian. I look forward to more experimentation with night shooting here.
pillory, Porto Cathedral
Paço Episcopal
Clérigos Tower
Sé do Porto (Porto Cathedral)
Sé do Porto (Porto Cathedral)
Ponte Luís I
Ponte Luís I
Ponte Luís I
Ponte Luís I
October 19, 2015
Album: Portugal [Autumn 2015]
- Mine lives in our car, waiting for long exposure opportunities. It doesn’t always get used, because I will always choose handheld over tripod if I can get away with cranking up the ISO or can find a supporting wall on which to lay the camera, but it’s nice to know that it’s there when I need it. ↩
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