Night Shots | Steve Oldham Photography

Blue Hour in Hamburg

I took this photo just before Christmas last year. I had a long weekend in Bremen to visit both the city and the Christmas market, but as I discovered there wasn’t much to see in Bremen, I decided to have a day trip to Hamburg to visit the markets and the city there.

This image is comprised of four original shots taken at different exposures, merged into a single high dynamic range image using Photomatix Pro, then finished using Photoshop CC and Nik Color Efex Pro.

I hope you like it!

Happy Holidays

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very happy Christmas, a happy holiday season, and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Thanks for taking some of your busy time to enjoy my work during 2013.

Here is the famous Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, Germany.

The Louvre, Paris

I took part in a free Photowalk organised by Trey Ratcliff in Paris last autumn. It was scheduled to take place just as night fell, giving great opportunities for the creation of HDR images, and with one of the masters of the technique on hand to provide advice and guidance.

This is an image I took of the entrance to the Louvre museum.

It’s a three image composite, with post production in Lightroom, Photoshop, Photomatix and Topaz Adjust.

A key importance was the composition, ensuring the alignment of the pyramids with the centre of the building in the background, and also with the centre of the frame. Also key was the other tourists – as anyone who has been to the Louvre will know it’s a busy location, made even more so when there are several hundred photowalkers around the place with tripods everywhere!

I hope you enjoy it. This image is available for purchase as a Limited Edition print.

Speed of Light

Between March 21 and 23, the arts charity NVA organised a large scale public art display in Salford Quays, England called “Speed of Light”. Based on the interaction of movement, light and sound over specific terrain, the exhibit featured 120 runners wearing special LED light suits, each individually controlled from a central system to instantaneously change colour, flash-rate and pattern, producing stunning light patterns, particularly when captured on long exposure images or specialist film.

For a watching audience Speed of Light can be seen as a piece of abstract art, operating at the grandest scale, where the physical surroundings become an open canvas carrying a new visual language, expressing mood and movement, comprised of form, colour and line. It is also a monumental public artwork equally at home on a hillside or in the urban heart of a city, but one that is still surprisingly quiet and reflective in its mood.

Paris

I’ve recently spent a few days shooting in Paris. My girlfriend was on a workshop with Trey Ratcliff and Miss Aniela, leaving me with a couple of days to shoot the city.

The first evening, Trey hosted a free PhotoWalk so I went along. Starting at the Place de la Concorde, we walked through the Jardin de Tuileries as the sun set, until we reached the Musee du Louvre at nightfall.

It was a great experience, watching a professional like Trey at work – understanding how he composes the shot, how he sets his camera for optimum bracketed shots, even the details as the preferred lens of choice.

I’ve a long way to go to reach the levels Trey has reached, but with practice and perseverence my art can only improve.

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo