Night Shots: Chicago's Burnham Pavilions

On October 3oth, I went down to Millennium Park to shoot the Burnham Pavilions at night, something I'd really wanted to do for awhile. I waited until the last minute to do so, as I believe the city started to disassemble them November 1st.

Even during daylight hours, the structures were absolutely amazing, and really impressed me. I can't speak for other low-light photographers, but the pavilions were an irresistible subject at night, due to the ever-changing lighting (and video) that's incorporated into the designs.



I was very lucky weather-wise too: the moon was almost full, it had stopped raining, and there was great cloud cover- an excellent element for long-exposure photography.

The first pavilion, by Zaha Hadid - who is, by the way, the first female architect to win the Pritzker Architecture Prize - is my favorite and the one in which video is projected:

The structure is so complex, that its completion was delayed two months because the design companies involved struggled to actually assemble it.

Wikipedia says, "The pavilion by Hadid...is a tensioned fabric shell fitted over a curving aluminum framework exceeding 7,000 pieces.^[8][5][6] As expected it accommodates a centennial-themed, audio and video presentation on its interior fabric walls. Although the frame is composed of 7,000 individually bent pieces, no two of which are alike, the shell is made up of a mere 24 custom-made panels of fabric."

New Watermark! (yea or nay?)

As you can see in the next few photos, the lighting was constantly changing, which made it really hard to stop photographing and walk away:

Also, this little photo assignment really made me pine for an 18 or 20mm wide lens. I just could not get back far enough, and I'm convinced my photos would have been better for it.

Here's the inside of Hadid's pavilion; there was a seven-minute video projection (with sound) that was looping:

I hate this photo a little bit for the clipped green light, but it shows you the ceiling construction of the interior:

A daytime shot can be viewed on my Flickr.

The second pavilion was designed by Ben van Berkel , a Dutch architect also responsible for this awesome bridge:

I was disappointed at first because the structure was not lit at all when we first arrived at the park. I wandered around to shoot other things until noticing that the lights were finally on. I think the materials were really waterlogged from the constant rain and foot-traffic abuse, and it affected the lights somehow.

In fact, the pavilion was apparently closed briefly due to wear and tear:

"The pavilion did not prove to be durable enough for the interactive environment of Millennium Park...skateboarders, avid fireworks spectators and youthful climbers have been part of the multiple causation of the decline of the pavilion that led to its closure during the week of August 10–14."(Wikipedia)

You can see water damage in the right corner of the top plane.

This thing stayed pink and purple most of the time...

It's uncertain what will happen to these structures after they're taken apart. The website explains that Hadid's is designed to be "dismantled and reinstalled in its entirety elsewhere," so that could be interesting.

I suspect van Berkel's will just be recycled due to the damage.


Here's an interesting time-lapse video of the Hadid pavilion being constructed. (Warning: there is music and it is cheesy.) Enjoy:

Video Source

In-Camera [Moon] Double Exposures

Today, tomorrow, and Tuesday are excellent nights for getting outside in the evening and practicing night and low-light photography. Why? The moon (of course)- it's full tomorrow.

The moon actually provides a lot of extra ambient light that can be helpful for illuminating otherwise dark scenes. Of course, it's also a beautiful sky/ landscape element in its own right.

Moon: 1/30 of a second at f/13 ; 300mm, ISO100

I made this double-exposure photo just a few hours ago. It was done in-camera, although many photographers prefer to take the shots separately and then combine them later with their software of choice.

The idea behind using two exposures to capture a scene including the moon is this:

If you meter for the scene, then the moon will be overexposed (you won't see any detail on the craters) since it's lit by reflected sunlight & is very bright in comparison to any low-light scene. If, on the other hand, you meter just for the moon, the rest of your image will be very underexposed. This makes two, overlayed exposures almost necessary.

Additionally, exposing for the landscape will result in a shutter speed too slow to freeze the moon's motion, and it will blur. The moon actually moves across the sky faster than you'd think.

Why in-camera? When using two exposures to include the moon in a scene, I prefer to combine in-camera simply because I find it faster & easier. (Your mileage may vary.) When creating other types of multiple exposure pictures, I do prefer Photoshop or GIMP, simply because they allow more control over element placement, exposure, ect.

Night-time canal near where I used to live! (2008)

To make these types of pictures, you'll need:

• tripod
  
• a telephoto lens with a focal length of somewhere between 70- 400mm
• a wider lens to capture the rest of your low-light landscape: ~ < 70mm
  
• remote (or cable) release
  

It's a good idea to set your camera's exposure compensation to -1.0 EV if you're doing two exposures. This allows the camera to combine the shots without overexposing the final image.

Your camera's EV comp. button should have a +/- and look something like this:

I usually take my moon shot first, and then compose the rest of the scene for exposure #2.

Here's how my in-camera double exposure process typically goes:

1. Adjust the EV compensation: maybe -0.5 EV or -1.0 EV
   
2. Enable your camera's double exposure mode.
   
3. Set ISO as low as it will go. (This is generally a good practice for reducing noise in night photography.)
   
4. Use your longer focal length lens to photograph the moon. I find anywhere from 100-300mm to be adequate. In fact, 300mm can create too-large-of-moon, although the effect can be fun.
5. To expose for the moon, use a smaller aperture- f/11 through f/16 - and meter accordingly. Take some test shots. The sunny sixteen rule also works. The moon in the first image of this post was shot at f/13 & 1/30 of a second; 300mm, ISO100.
6. Switch to your wider lens.
7. Meter the rest of your landscape normally; this will typically result in a longish exposure- but that's ok because you brought a remote release, right?
8. Voilá - you should now have a lunar double exposure!
   

• Important: remember whereabouts in the frame you shot the moon! If you don't, you might end up with a moon sitting on top of a building or car. I like to enable my camera's alignment grid overlay, and use the lines to help me remember where exposure #1's moon is.

Here's an example of a double exposure in which I "placed" the moon poorly:

High tide at a Ft. Lauderdale inlet; (2008)

It just looks unnatural.

• Another common mistake is creating a composition with incorrect lunar lighting. Here the moon's light is seen shining on the water at a very low angle from the left side of the frame:

Strange property lighting & high tide at a Ft. Lauderdale inlet; (2008)

I placed the moon in a position in which, realistically, it could not possibly cast the light seen on the water.

Now I realize many DSLRs lack double-exposure modes; in those cases, software would be the way to go. As a Nikon shooter, I can tell you that the D80, D90, D200, D300, & D700 do have multi-exposure modes. Consult your manual.

Lastly, here is an awesome website for tracking lunar phases, so you can plan your moon-lit photo outings!

Have fun experimenting! The moon is so enjoyable to shoot, it makes me wish we had more than one natural satellite!