Lots of stories attached to the above picture. It is of the Registan Square in Samarkand, possibly the highlight of my trip to Uzbekistan and definitely one of the highlights of my Silk Road trip. I love taking low light pictures at sunset or sunrise. It's a bit of photography trickery really, you wait for the sun to set and just when you think that the sky is too black, you take a long exposure shot and the sky comes out in these incredibly blue hues. That's for sunsets, which was when I originally tried to take this picture.Unfortunately, in my rush to the site, I totally forgot that I took my camera out of my bag in the hotel room. So there I was, tripod set up just in the right place, I reach into my bag and realize the booboo I just made. This was our last night in Samarkand and I wouldn't get a second shot. By the time I'd run back to the hotel to get the camera, the sky would be too dark.
Luckily, sunrise provides me the same opportunity although it means waking up at an ungodly hour, sneaking out of the hotel and setting up in relative darkness in a deserted street in a foreign land. But since I was not coming back to Samarkand anytime soon I had to do it. I arrive just at the right time, set up my tripod, take a test shot (the one above) and right in the middle of my exposure (13 seconds), the lights are turned off. So this is the only decent low light photo I have of this place. Still better than nothing.
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2 comments:
That's a beaut, JZ! To think it was just a test shot, and if you had arrived just a few seconds later, you would've missed your chance. How ungodly was the hour when you got out of bed?
Usually it's one hour before sunset at the site so you need to allow for transit.
It's worth it though, needless to say, not everyone is willing to wake up at such an hour so you end up with pictures different from the rest.
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