Each day has a sunset

Hole in the sky

The sky is covered with rain clouds.  The day ends with lightning in the horizon.  The sun begins to set unseen until a hole in the clouds formed.  Rays of golden sunshine seep through revealing a beautiful sight in spite of the rain.

Photography involves taking shots of subjects under proper lighting.  Sunsets are shots of the light source itself.  The light becomes the subject of the photograph.  In any given day, there is normally a window of about 10 to 15 minutes for sunset shots.  The window of opportunity is longer the farther north or south the location is from the equator. 

Shot with the LG G4, manual mode.

Great balls of light

Great balls of light

An array of circles of light can be produced by taking shots of light sources in out of focus (OOF) condition.  These are actually residential building windows shot one night while taking a walk.  While this shot can be dramatically improved with more controls available in a DSLR, this is not that bad considering mobile phone photography.  But not all mobile cameras have options for manual focus.  This is a necessity for this kind of shots.  Otherwise, it is a matter of tricking the autofocus sensor into misbehaving just to reproduce this.


Buildings at night

Drive

Motion blurr, tunnel effect

Shooting while in motion is not always a good idea.  In fact, to keep steady while shooting is always the rule.  There are times however that blurring is good to show motion.  If the camera is moving forward or backward while taking the shot, the effect is like being in a tunnel.  Lines radiate outward from the center of the frame, where the vanishing point is.  The faster the speed of motion, the greater the blurr.  This technique can turn a very ordinary scene into something more interesting.


Shot with an LG G4 at 1/24 s shutter time.

A long walk

B&W inside HKIA arrival terminal

Photography has evolved into something so massive as it is today.  From film to digital and from fixed to mobile to extremely mobile.  It has been a long walk but it will still be on a forward momentum as long as we continue to embrace the images around us.  Welcome to the world of mobile photography.

Image shot with an LG G4