Louise Bridge at Night

In 1989, Michael Kenna came to Calgary and offered a workshop on Night Photography, which I attended. I was still relatively new to photography, especially with a View Camera, and I do not think that I got very much out of the workshop; no fault of Michael Kenna's, I am sure. I was just not able or ready to absorb such a different type of photography. I know that I never produced a decent print from the workshop, and I have only once since tried night photography with limited success.

With this project, I felt that the time had come to try again, so earlier this week, I went to the Kensington area in Calgary (the same area where Michael had taken the group for a field trip!), and I took pictures of the LRT bridge and the Louise Bridge. I used my digital camera as well as my 4 x 5 view camera and the results were very enlightening. The digital image was awful!

The image published is the one taken with my 4 x 5 camera. The negative was scanned and the digital file used for the presentation. I have subsequently learned all the mistakes I made using my digital camera so hopefully I shall be able to get much better results in time!

[photo for week of 28 September 2009]

© David Butts, 2009