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City of the Night - I

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Description

A view of Singapore's Central Business District (CBD) at night.

It's been ages since I went for a proper night photography outing, so this was the end result. 
Image size
2048x1360px 1.17 MB
Make
NIKON CORPORATION
Model
NIKON D300S
Shutter Speed
300/10 second
Aperture
F/16.0
Focal Length
11 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
Sep 27, 2009, 9:11:22 PM
© 2009 - 2024 hexlord
Comments106
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greenzaku's avatar
:star::star::star::star: Overall
:star::star::star::star::star-empty: Vision
:star::star::star::star-empty::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star::star::star: Technique
:star::star::star::star::star-half: Impact

Excellent use of motion to capture an apparently empty street...the glow-lines from speeding vehicles makes the image look surreal.

The thumbnail for this image is eyecatching, mostly because of the light glowing like stars in the lower half of the image which makes the viewer want to expand it and find out what they are. I feel that it takes daring and imagination to point the camera directly at a light source at night.

Which brings this critique to the next point: The photo evokes a wider perspective...there are more lights...more stars on the ground than in the night sky because of the heavy urbanisation. It is as if Singaporeans have replaced the natural beauty of the night with a constellation of their own...when they look up, all that most people on the ground will see are the skyscrapers. The city is so busy that the lights never truly go out.

The white, central building contrasts with the other buildings, which are of darker colour; but in itself does not become the focal point of the image. Instead it forces people to look in the centre of the photograph and take it as a whole, to form their own impressions of it.

The only negative criticism I have of this image is that without this subtle shift in focus, there is little that sets apart this photograph in terms of originality compared to the many similar cityscape photos that are easy to see in tourist brochures. But perhaps this could be a good thing...its just another city where humans have made the sky gone dark with their own little earthly lightbulbs.