At my Dark Edinburgh talk at the Festival of Museums last year, I discussed what I considered to be my perfect night for photography ( specifically my type of Dark Edinburgh photography ).
It went like this. It’s a quiet day of the week and it’s raining. The streets are empty and all the roads and pavements are shining. Then the rain stops and you go out with the camera. The streets are still empty, everyone still avoiding the rain, and everything is glistening. It’s no longer unpleasantly wet from above. I’d hoped this was going to happen last year in Amsterdam but it didn’t stop raining.
At the start of the year, I had to get out to get some new images (posting one image a day sounds easy?) and, having had a busy weekend, decided that I should try and get out on Monday 4th Jan. I drove home from work that night in the pouring rain with some doubt but, as I finished my dinner, it seemed to be easing off. I headed out and it was lovely. It drizzled a little throughout the night but not enough to be unpleasant and just enough to keep the street shiny.
I didn’t take a tripod as I was worried it might rain again. I wish I had (as it would have tidied up a lot of the lights) but, as ever, the Fuji X100S worked miracles handheld in the dark – usual setup, f2.0, Dynamic Range 200%, Auto ISO to 6400, minimum shutter 1/60. All edited with one or other of the Nik Collection, Silver, Analog, Color Efex.
As Norman MacCaig said “The night tinkles like ice in glasses“.
Here’s a few of the pics from that night, all of which have since been featured on Dark Edinburgh. I will look out for another one like it.
