Patience is a bitter plant, but it has sweet fruit. –  Chinese proverb The new crescent waxes and each evening is higher in the sky. Through a wide angle the early moon is barely visible; waxing a night or two later it is more conspicuous. Being higher in the sky it is harder to frame […]

Suburban twilight and new moon. 5.42 pm, 4 July 2011 Effort appears to be the main art of living. –  Harold Nicolson 28mm, ISO 100. 5 seconds at f22. Incandescent light balance.

All along the watchtower, princes kept the view; While all the women came and went, their foot-servants too.  – Bob Dylan The surreal song lyric [misquoted on the web] fits this enigmatic view from the waterfront pavement at Kaikoura, in the South Island. The scale is ambiguous and the light unusual, but at least more […]

Twilight has one simple and obvious advantage over night photography: you can see what you are doing. You can focus by eye or auto, and compose quickly. You have a wider range of exposure choices, to allow or prevent movement showing, for example, without the sacrifice in aperture selection that workable shutter times need at […]

NEWS: The above image is one of about 50 of mine which have just been published in a free ebook of quotations by Hannah Samuel, public speaker, author and mentor, of Auckland. The Pocket Book of Men’s Wisdom, Volume 1 is a compilation of quotes from Kiwi men associated with Big Buddy (www.bigbuddy.org.nz), a mentoring […]

A companion piece to no. 107. Twilight tractor (and taken 6 minutes later), this electric call to good order conveys another mood. Existentialists may freely dwell on it. Outside the Waikanae boat club 45 minutes after sunset, the balance of light was changing in favour of artificial light. A star is visible in the nightfall. […]

This took around 15 minutes at a small aperture, on Fuji slide film. It was a perfect summer’s evening at Paritutu Centennial Park, and I spent the interlude chatting with a friend. I’m only guessing that the stripe is Venus, but as she often accompanies the early moon it’s a good bet. For trails like […]

Golden orb on the shoulder of Mt Taranaki, from the National Park boundary.

Heavy haulage outside the boat club; beast and beauty of the tripod

Uncommon natural lighting with an extra touch

Vertical grace and green against a starry sky; the search for critical focus

An unexpected colour at second quarter; a wild coast made easy for the townie

Two minutes in the twilight; highlighting a volcanic bomb

Geothermal ugly in yellow and blue; a mixture of light plus an LED torch

Graveyard in white and the mountain in grey; a harmony of moon rays and lingering daylight

Abstract of evening traffic; use of two planes of movement

Twilight use of flash; subtlety, instantaneity and their opposites

A twilight twist from the Chateau; telephoto and perspective

An inspiring new structure, after dark; noise, scale and safety

Twilight trial with a tiny LED torch; using the wide angle on a bridge

A big view on big film; monochrome surf in extended exposure; vertical compositions

A tungsten study aided by a surprise arrival; using flash with long exposure at twilight

Finding depth in a wide angle view; the challenge of a square format

Balancing the last of the day with industrial lighting; the tungsten setting and colour temperature

The madding crowd stayed only till sunset. Deep twilight is close to moonlight in exposure terms.