[lmccauley]

Saturday night, my girlfriend & I went to Durham to see Lumiere - a festival of light. There were several exhibits/installations, but the most spectacular was "Crown of Light" - Durham Cathedral as a 100m wide projection screen. It was truly awe-inspiring.

Stupidly, I had decided not to take my tripod with me, and had to rely on one or more of balancing on a convenient wall, VR, a very wide aperture (f/1.4) or high ISO (400-1600). I used a Nikon D50, Nikkor 80-300mm VR and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lenses.

Lumiere photo set on flickr

This is the view of Durham Cathedral from the railway station. I balanced the camera on a wall and triggered it using the timer for 25 seconds at f/8. I was slightly nervous of the 30+ foot drop on the other side of the wall...

This is one of the bridges below the cathedral, that was lit up. This time, I hand-held the camera, and braced on a railing. Exposure was one second at f/4.5. Thank goodness for Vibration Reduction lenses!

This "dress" was made of fibre-optic and installed in an unused shop. I composed the shot to get a reflection of the street. 1/20 sec, f/2, ISO800

These were all hand-held at about 1/20th second, f/1.4, ISO1600 - hence the graininess and blur when you zoom in. Best I could do in the circumstances though. If only I'd brought my tripod...

I used an SB400 flash on this one to pick out some of the nearer spectators.

[Gordon @ Convergent AV]

Like these Liam. The dress sculpture one in particular

[nikonuser11]

very nice, first one is excellent

[existent]

I really like that dress shot. Great use of the reflection of the street. I can't really tell that there is glass.

[lmccauley]

Thanks for the comments.

I was really kicking myself for not taking my tripod. It seemed that everyone else out that night had one!

[tontoshorse]

Originally Posted by lmccauley

Thanks for the comments.

I was really kicking myself for not taking my tripod. It seemed that everyone else out that night had one!

and you didn't think to ask?

well handled though, the D50 performs remarkably well with high iso.



I do wonder about this lighting up buildings malarky and calling it art.

Its not like they need any "improvements"