Although well known for his photography of the great American national parks such as Yellowstone, Ansel Adams also has a strong connection to Arizona. He was one of the founders of the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, one of the largest archives of Adams’ work; he was often published in Arizona Highways magazine; and he often photographed the wonders of Arizona from the San Xavier Mission near Tucson to the Grand Canyon and Canyon de Chelly.
The Phoenix Art Museum, in collaboration with the Center for Creative Photography, is presenting an exhibit of Ansel Adams’ photography entitled “Ansel Adams: Discoveries.” The exhibit features 120 photographs spanning the lifetime of Adams as well as documents from his personal archives.
Adams is best known for his sweeping landscape photography. But this exhibit highlights his work in the architectural photography realm as well as some portraiture he did during his career in addition to his well known nature and landscape work. It traces his relationship with Arizona Highways magazine and Eastman Kodak as well. But more than that, it presents Adams’ personal photography philosophies such as his concept of careful seeing – observing the subject in careful detail and truly seeing all that it had to present – as well as his struggles with and ideas on working with color photography.
This is a very well done exhibit of the full spectrum of Ansel Adams’ work and life. It runs at the Phoenix Art Museum until June 6, 2010. Admission to the museum is $10 for adults. But if you go on a Wednesday nights from 3 pm to 9 pm it is free.
Perfecting night photography can take some practice and a few pieces of extra equipment such as a tripod. Setting a wide aperture, a longer shutter speed, adjusting the ISO up as necessary and using a tripod all work together to compensate for the darkness of night. The key is to get just enough light to the sensor (aperture setting) for just enough time (shutter speed) with as little camera movement (tripod) as possible. Sounds almost impossible. But if you have the patience and practice you can get some great night time photographs.
The Phoenix area has some perfect spots for practicing and perfecting your night photography skills.
Tempe Town Lake
Tempe Town Lake is best photographed from the north shore at night. This vantage point gives you the opportunity to capture the Hayden Ferry office buildings and the Mill Avenue Bridge as they are lit up and reflecting into the waters of the lake. The Metro Light Rail bridge is also a great night time subject. This photo was shot with an aperture of f/5.0 and a shutter speed of 8 seconds with the aide of a tripod.
Mesa Arts Center
As anyone who has followed my blog knows, The Mesa Arts Center is one of my absolute favorite spots in the Phoenix area to photograph, night or day. But at night it is especially beautiful. The architects worked with light and color making them compliment the architecture of the arts center campus exceptionally well. This photo was taken with an aperture of f/4.0 but a shorter shutter speed than the one of the Tempe Town Lake at only 1.6 seconds. The extra ambient lighting allowed for this shorter shutter speed yet I still used a tripod as anything much over 30 seconds is difficult to hold steady for me.
Arizona Falls
Arizona Falls might not come to the top of most lists as a great photography spot. It is after all just a power generating plant. However, it is also a public work of art of sorts. And at night the concrete, stone and steel structures are lit up. The lights and the water make for some great night time composition possibilities. This photo was shot with an aperture of f/5.6 at 4 seconds and with the aide of a tripod.
Joe’s real BBQ – Gilbert, AZ
Downtown Gilbert does not consist of much square mileage. But there is a lot going on packed within its boundaries that make it worth a night time trip with camera in hand. If you are a neon sign enthusiast there are several good classic signs to capture. This one for Joe’s Real BBQ – an excellent place to eat – was captured with an aperture of f/5.6 at 1/125 seconds. The short shutter speed was possible because I increased my ISO up to 800. This also allowed me to go without the tripod in this instance.
The four spots in the Phoenix area for night time photography are just a sampling of what you will find. A few others you should consider are downtown Phoenix, the Scottsdale Civic Plaza, the Arizona Biltmore Resort, Main St. in Mesa for more vintage neon, and the Mill Ave. District in Tempe. This should give you plenty of opportunities to practice and improve your night photography skills.
Wong’s
f/22 – 1/15 sec – ISO 100 – Focal Length 100 mm
This photograph required some post-processing work to get it as it is seen here. I was off in my exposure settings resulting in an over exposed image. But working with the original RAW file allowed me to make adjustments after the fact to correct that over exposure. I also did some work to make the red of the building and the blue of the sky pop a bit. The ability to do simple to rather complex corrections and/or improvements to an image is one of the great advantages of shooting digital images.
