The final set aims to portray the light pollution emitted from the city. The set begins with an exterior shot looking into the city summing up the concept. It then moves into the city to show the quality of light within the city before heading back out to abstract these qualities through shifting the lens.
All my photos so far had been looking into the city from a distance so my fifth shoot was in the city to get a closer perception of what it was like be 'in' the pollution of light. These two were the most successful from the shoot. While the top photo has lens flare i feel in the context of the theme it does not detract from the photo as it is about light pollution and the flare almost reinforced the intensity of the light by infecting the photo. The cloud about the building picks up all the light while just off to the side over the harbour there is a cleaner sky showing a huge contrast.
The conditions were pretty cool for enhancing the polluted luminosity of the city with very low, thick cloud hovering over the city. The citys lights reflected up off the cloud to create a haze over the city. The cloud even picked up individual lights of buildings seen in the photo below. It was a bit windy making for tricky conditions to get nice crisp photos on a long exposure but the following two were the best of the set.
This shoot I tried a similar technique from a different angle round at oriental bay.
This photo below was the most successful. The overall composition with the hazy clouds and the pulled city lights make a visually interesting shot. While the lights have been pulled the foreground has stayed pretty crisp.
For my first shoot I set base up on Northland hill to get a view down onto the city to try and capture the light pollution emitted out from the buildings. The quality of light was not ideal to show this so I had a bit of an experimental shoot playing with long exposures and lens shifting. This produced a bunch of interesting images and two Im pretty happy with. (2nd & 4th)
Light pollution and fog combine to blur a New York City skyline.
Chicago at night burns bright under blankets of clouds. Much of the glow escapes from streetlamps, including clear, Victorian-style lamps good for creating atmosphere but poor for harnessing today's extra-bright bulbs.
"For most of human history, the phrase “light pollution" would have made no sense. Now most of humanity lives under intersecting domes of reflected, refracted light." National Geographic - Our Vanishing Night.
Photograph by NASA 1996
Luminous patches glow on a map of nighttime Earth created from satellite and ground data on scattered light as of 1996-97. The situation is even worse today. Based on calculations, two-thirds of humanity lives under skies polluted with light, and one-fifth can no longer see the Milky Way.
This photo really intrigued me, indicating the densest areas across the world through light admission. While we think of New Zealand being reasonably insignificant on the scale of the whole world, this photo suggests otherwise with the likes of Auckland and Wellington having reasonably defined areas of luminosity.
Through the last two projects, the idea of light pollution has become quite apparent as whilst photographing in town, the city it completely lit by artificial light and in effect creating an atmospheric haze above the city. By the time I drive out of town into the suburbs, the same sky has a completely different aesthetic lined with sharp stars scattered across the sky.
I find it quite an ironic concept that by creating light, we are effectively taking it away.. For project three I aim to demonstrate this concept of light pollution through various photographic techniques.
My final compilation of time-lapses is based on the concept the city is a mechanism dictated by time. It aims to provoke the viewer into questioning the city we live in by changing the way it is perceived.
It opens with a surreal, airy overview of the city with morphing clouds and rays of sun piercing through. It then moves on to the airport which almost personifies the city with pulsating energy running through its arteries and miniaturises the constant airplane activity at the airport. The clip then moves more central, climaxing along one of the busiest areas in Wellington through the shear diversity of movement through the space. As time progresses, the activities of the city are dictated according. The stadium lights are turned off after the game and hordes of cars make their way to and from the city. As traffic lightens, the port works away through the night docking ships and loading containers. The moon traces the sky before the sun rises, indicating a new day. The video returns to the same point overlooking the city, however less surreal than the intro revealing the city’s mechanical process with wind turbines generating energy to power the city and industries and inhabitants consuming it up. This regulated cycle continues, concluding with shaky time-lapse footage of energy being vigorously pumped through the cities arties appearing to push the its capacity to its limit.
Another segment of time shot from Mt Vic. This time looking south out over the airport. The fast moving clouds made for some cool effects along with the planes landing down. As the camera was in windy conditions and on autofocus, it has created a flare of lights every so often. However unintentional, i think it adds quite a cool quality as the city pulsates with energy every few seconds.
Michael Wesley's long exposure maps are in a way a static time lapse as they record information over an extended period of time. They literally allows us to see time in one image.
Using photography to manipulate time is an extremely interesting concept whether it is through fast or slow shutter speeds, time-lapse or ridiculously long exposures as Michael Wesely has demonstrated.
