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Nightime Travels
Nightime Travels
pidge


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: City Life II (Basic Editing III)
Camera: Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Location: Montreal
Date: Jan 3, 2006
Aperture: 22
ISO: 100
Shutter: 10 sec
Galleries: Cityscape, Transportation
Date Uploaded: Jan 3, 2006

 Long exposure taken on a bridge over the highway.

I was going to title it rush hour, but I worried people would get hung up on that it is a night shot. It was taken at the end of rush hour. Just gets dark very early up here.

Edit: First, thank you to everyone for your comments and scores! I honestly didn’t think this would score that well do the ‘been there done that’ nature of the shot, but this was a first time lapse shot for me, so thank you!

A star filter was not used. I actually didn’t know what they were until I read the thread on it and received some comments on it.

I feel the need to explain a few things, and this may come across as a semi-rant, so feel free to ignore! I stated it earlier in a thread, but got yelled at, so I deleted it, and now, here is my explanation.

1) The word ‘life’ to me does not mean there has to be a living organism in the picture if the challenge is City Life. How often do we talk about inanimate things, such as a picture, being either ‘dead’ or ‘full of life’? Quite often, and thus I think of life as being more akin to energy. If it (being living or inanimate) has energy, than it can be considered to have life

2) Two images popped into my head the moment I read this challenge. The first was the Grand Central Station scene in the movie Koyaanisqatsi. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. It’s basically a time lapse scene, which creates a sense of immediacy, life and craziness by the amount of people moving in and through Grand Central Station in New York. The second thing that popped in my head was a traffic jam

Why traffic jam? In North America, in a major city, it is virtually impossible to get from point A to point B if they are relatively far away from each other. What do people use? The freeway or the highway. Going on with my metaphors, freeways are to me the arteries of a city. Without them, cities would languish, except for the heart of the urban core. That’s another rant for another time (urbanization, sprawl etc.). What I’m trying to do is get people to understand why I took a picture of a highway.

I was going to take a picture of rush hour, but thought that would be to boring a picture, and thus, this is why there is a time lapse shot of a highway. I consider a highway to be an essential part of city life, especially in North American cities where millions of people take the highway to simply survive in the city.

If you still don’t think this is city life, then, I guess we’ll just agree to disagree.

Cheers, and thanks for taking the time to read! Again, thank you for a fun week!

Statistics
Place: 14 out of 173
Avg (all users): 6.3825
Avg (commenters): 6.8919
Avg (participants): 6.1899
Avg (non-participants): 6.4299
Views since voting: 1866
Views during voting: 578
Votes: 400
Comments: 46
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
 04/30/2006 10:00:52 AM
You did a good job in portraying the speed and business of City Life. The trails are cool because they are so long, only few of them are 'chopped off'. The highlights look really good, but the rest of the scene might have been a bit brighter.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/26/2006 11:50:39 PM
lovely shot. people don't realize how hard this is until they actually try it. it really takes a lot of work to catch the lines so nicely, and your patience shows here. very good work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/22/2006 08:01:39 PM
I gave this an 8 in the challenge. Well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 03/13/2006 03:06:28 AM
This is a fantastic photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2006 05:06:27 PM
Pretty sweet image Pidge :) Love the lines created by the flow of lights. A real colorful wonder that brings much delight to whomever sees it ;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/12/2006 11:12:45 AM
Congratulations on your top 20 finish with this little colorful gem.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/10/2006 11:13:09 PM
Stars in the sky! :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/10/2006 01:05:16 PM
I love these shots. Great capture!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/10/2006 03:12:43 AM
Nice Use of shutter speed!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/10/2006 12:38:27 AM
Nicely done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2006 07:49:10 PM
good exposure and composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/09/2006 12:49:48 AM
I like the use of the star filter for the streetlights.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 11:26:29 PM
gorgeous shot. nice use of the star filter in lights!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 10:48:52 PM
Is this Bristol?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 05:36:45 PM
Not sure if I like the starry lights or not for this shot... seems there are too many of them that they become overwhelming perhaps. Either way, this is still one of my favorite shots from the challenge. Very well done!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 09:16:14 AM
No offense but this strikes me more as highway life. Is there a city nearby?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 08:11:26 AM
Quite a striking image.....
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/08/2006 12:25:03 AM
Probably the nicest long-exposure in the challenge. Lovely rich colours, nice flowing lines that all converge together and the star effect on the streetlights really adds a nice sparkle to the shot. Great work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2006 11:45:39 PM
Wow, Very pretty. I love how the street lights have a star shape. Fascinating!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2006 06:01:10 PM
Very nice
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2006 12:18:47 PM
the "star" lights are neat on here!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/07/2006 01:19:18 AM
Very Cool. Good job on the static items and lights
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 06:15:23 PM
Curved lights at various levels are interesting, and the star filter works for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 04:26:22 PM
Love the star effect in the street lamps and the beautiful curvature of the traffic flow; too bad there isn't more color variety, but still I really liked it
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 03:57:45 PM
The monocromatics and the leetle stars really grab me. Nice job.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 01:22:04 PM
Great time lapse photo! Like the twinkle lights too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 12:22:15 PM
oh yeah, that's the city - beautiful exposure and clarity in this well composed night shot 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 04:49:47 AM
Love this (8)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/06/2006 12:17:23 AM
Nicely done - I love the star lights. Great exposure.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 11:30:26 PM
very nice! i love all the light bursts.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 09:44:36 PM
Nice job! This is one of the more interesting "car trail" shots I've seen-- I think having the four separate roadways filling the shot helps a lot. Plus, the star patterns on the streetlights is a nice bonus.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 09:34:53 PM
Really like this. Nice job, and even with the shutter lag, it's not too distorted. Nice job!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 03:36:40 PM
Like the light look like stars..... adds to the picture Like it alot !! Nice pic
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 02:23:12 AM
well executed
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/05/2006 12:31:53 AM
One of the best traffic pictures in this challenge!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 11:30:56 PM
beautiful, but too distant from "life" to get the highest score.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 09:44:44 PM
Good highway scene. I like the starvursts of the overhead lights compared to the car light streaks. Good luck in the challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 06:09:41 PM
Nice. Not super original but it took some effort to achieve, I'm guessing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 03:24:59 PM
wow, its such a pretty shot, i love how the lights look like stars
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 03:08:48 PM
I guess I've seen too many of these in the past.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 03:02:07 PM
I really like this. I like the starburst effect on the street lights
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 07:13:12 AM
Cant find live in tis one or was it City Scape or City Life not sure :(
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 05:13:12 AM
so.. how exactly do you get these little star lights? Is this some photoshop thing, a special filter, or what? I've seen a lot of these lately... Nice shot, btw, I'm just curious.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 02:06:12 AM
cool lights. nice title. for some reason these night shots with the lights dont excite me too much though
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 01:34:22 AM
How pretty with all of the red "stars."
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/04/2006 01:16:34 AM
Very nice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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