Nighttime Long-Exposure Cherry Blossoms

I went out late last night to try a few nighttime long exposures of some cherry blossoms. This was my second attempt at long-exposure shots, the first having been a year ago with some long nighttime shots of the river that runs beside our place. This time I had my Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 (rather than the Nikkor 18-200VR), and also a remote-shutter release with a timer, so I could make exposures longer than the camera's 30-second limit.

— full exif & map — nearby photos Kyoto Biwako Canal by Night -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 32 sec, f/10, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +2.31EVfull exif & mapnearby photos
Kyoto Biwako Canal by Night

The image above is a 32-second exposure, boosted a further 2.31EV during post processing in Adobe Lightroom (meaning that it's equivalent to an un-boosted exposure of about 2 minutes 38 seconds). In reality, it was extremely dark and to my eyes everything on the left side of the image was mostly just a dim silhouette.

In comparison, here's a picture taken during the day with my point-n-shoot two years ago.

The image above is taken at spot where the canal turns 90 degrees (it runs off to the left in this image). So turning left myself and following the canal for a few yards, I took this 30-second exposure....

— full exif & map Resting for the Night -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2007 Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 30 sec, f/10, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +0.27EVfull exif & map
Resting for the Night

The sign on the fence says “don't park your bicycle or scooter here.”

Looking out over the water with a 70-second exposure....


Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 70 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image datanearby photos
Blossoms Snoozing for the Night

Continuing parallel to the canal, I took this 29-second (69-second equivalent) picture looking back toward where I'd just come from. Where it looks like the water dead-ends in the background is where it turns 90 degrees, and is the spot where the first shot above was taken. (The “map” link under each photo details its location.)


Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 17mm — 29 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200, P.P. boost: +1.16EVmap & image datanearby photos

All 3 comments so far, oldest first...

I love the colors of Kyoto Biwako Canal by Night, Jeffrey. You pics keep getting better & better. Have you given any thoughts to publishing?

Have I given any thoughts to publishing? Isn’t that what I’m doing on this blog? 🙂

Despite having seen my technical book through three editions, I haven’t the first clue what to do with my photos.
People can see them on the web… I can’t imagine anyone paying anything for them, unless they want to use it in an advertisement or something…

About these night shots, frankly, I was disappointed with them, but it was only my second try. It won’t be my last….

—Jeffrey

— comment by Bill on April 4th, 2007 at 3:10pm JST (17 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink

Breathtaking!

— comment by Julia on April 4th, 2007 at 5:35pm JST (17 years, 8 months ago) comment permalink

Amazing…I’m beginning to miss Japan. Is there anyway you can email me a bigger version of JEF_028048.jpg. I would love to use it as my desktop.

Thanks Yuki

— comment by Yuki on October 29th, 2007 at 11:35pm JST (17 years, 1 month ago) comment permalink
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