Blog
90for90 – Vajrasana Buddhist Centre03.22 / The Original and the Copy02.20 / The Architecture of Intuition10.19 / Up and Down09.19 / Watching Paint Dry06.19 / Gathering Light04.19 / Signs of Life03.19 / The Colour of Water05.17 / Take it as it comes01.17 / Torrential Sunshine11.16 / Where is Everybody?11.16 / Appropriate Light, Serpentine Pavilion10.16 / No Drama10.16 / Every Day is a Good Day09.16 / Sunset + 20 minutes09.16 / Appropriate Light, Turner Contemporary Margate08.16 / In Context04.16 / Fuzzy Boundaries03.16 / Is it possible to photograph the lights going on and off?07.15 / Waiting for a Solar Eclipse03.15 / In Praise of Darkness10.14 / Sensing Spaces01.14 / Nocturnal Change06.13 / The Logistics of Space05.13 /
90for90 – Vajrasana Buddhist Centre03.22 / The Original and the Copy02.20 / The Architecture of Intuition10.19 / Up and Down09.19 / Watching Paint Dry06.19 / Gathering Light04.19 / Signs of Life03.19 / The Colour of Water05.17 / Take it as it comes01.17 / Torrential Sunshine11.16 / Where is Everybody?11.16 / Appropriate Light, Serpentine Pavilion10.16 / No Drama10.16 / Every Day is a Good Day09.16 / Sunset + 20 minutes09.16 / Appropriate Light, Turner Contemporary Margate08.16 / In Context04.16 / Fuzzy Boundaries03.16 / Is it possible to photograph the lights going on and off?07.15 / Waiting for a Solar Eclipse03.15 / In Praise of Darkness10.14 / Sensing Spaces01.14 / Nocturnal Change06.13 / The Logistics of Space05.13 /
Sunset + 20 minutes 09.16
There is a point on a clear evening with a crisp blue sky when everything seems to be in harmony. Calm and serene yet vibrant at the same time, an electric atmosphere hangs in the air for a short period, a merging of darkness and light. The lighting on the buildings is seen in balance against the remaining blue light of the sky and the city seems especially alive. This is why I enjoy dusk; photographing lighting projects is why I spend a lot of time waiting for it!
If I google ‘dusk’ it says 6:57 PM Friday, October 7, 2016 (BST), Dusk in London, UK. All very precise, according to this dusk will be happening 33 minutes after sunset. Wikipedia then tells me that Dusk is actually short for ‘Astronomical Dusk’, or the darkest part of twilight before night begins. This is part of a whole sequence of events that lead from day into night – sunset, civil twilight, civil dusk, nautical twilight, nautical dusk, astronomical twilight and then astronomical dusk all occur before ‘nightfall’. Time measured against the course of the sun.
Minute changes in light level, angle of sun and colour of sky are what we will see as this process unfolds, this is one of the times where we can most vividly experience the minute by minute changes occurring around us. Flux in action – visible.
The following images (Lower Regent Street, lighting by Studio-29) illustrate an exercise in recording and viewing these changes, the first image at sunset followed by an image every 5 minutes. When seen together they allow us to observe the balance shifting within the scene; the sky darkens and the emphasis drops onto illuminated windows, traffic on the street and building facade lighting. As one aspect of the city dissolves another appears.
My rule of thumb for project photography is sunset +20 minutes, this is usually the time I can start taking the photographs. Pre-planning will allow me to have mentally ‘set up’ a number of images and then it is a race against time to try to get them all done during dusk.
All of this will depend upon the project, the local environment, the level of artificial light, the amount of sky that is visible in the image, the weather, cloud cover and what is happening at the location. So there are many factors that will help me to decide when I am going to take the photographs but ultimately it just feels right at the time.