Night Photography

I received some rough news Friday. After spending some time with my brother, I knew I wouldn't be ready to head home, so I brought my photo gear with me. It hasn't been as much of a release for me as in the past, but I was trying something new (night photography is something I have done next to none of, and even then, it was of illuminated architecture), and I needed time to reflect (okay, so maybe I didn't need time to think, as my biggest issue is being able to stop thinking). Unfortunately, it was incredibly overcast, so photographing the stars wasn't ideal. I figured I drove 30 minutes to get away from the city lights, though, so I may as well take a few photos. I had my 8mm fisheye lens on my D5100, so it being on the crop sensor made the resulting picture non-spherical like it would have been had I put it on the D600. My cable release didn't work on the D600 anyway, so while I took a couple of shots holding down the shutter while tripod mounted, it wasn't possible to make some other type of photos work that way. The shot below is one I didn't mess with too much; I could have corrected the distortion caused by the fisheye, but I'd crop out the yellow floodlight at the left of the picture, and that is why the photo itself is the color it is. While the light obviously isn't that strong, when you have the lens open for several minutes, that is what happens (although the image when uploaded on blogger is much lighter and less contrasty than the photo appears when I open it in photo software). I wanted to be able to illustrate that effect. The light was actually not bright enough for me to see there was a gate there from afar! The idea for the shot was to have the road traveling off, but the gate sort of ruined it in a way.

In a way, though, I like the outcome even better. It tells a different story, one that I would say is even more applicable to my life. In life there are many paths we can take, but sometimes the only path that will yield any sort of results is to follow your heart. Happiness is such a fleeting emotion, so even if something doesn't make sense to try, that it logically is risky and the wiser answer is to try and make what you presently have work, emotions still persist and say there is only one path for you to take. Standing there, that's what it felt like. Clearly there is one road, but that road has a gate, and in that moment, one must wonder if one must try and cross the gate or turn back. Since it is a long release, though, that one moment is actually quite a few moments, which makes sense since it is a very difficult and exhausting decision. So in the end, I do like the narrative. Er, perhaps I shouldn't have given away the narrative that I portrayed to get the thoughts of others, you know, because there are hordes of people reading this post eager to give their interpretations of it :D