Black and white photography was my passion for over 2 decades. The black and white dance photographs are from around 1986. My camera: the Canon AE-1 with Kodak Tri-X (black & white film) and I were inseparable. Whether I was hiking, sailing, or traveling, I took thousands of black and white photos. I love to travel and take street photography. With the technology of modern digital cameras, I am able to shoot street photography at night without a tripod. I love to capture how people live, work, and play at night. These Paris Café scenes at night are examples. When I was pursuing my photography degree, I fell in love with color night photography. My urban landscapes are about capturing the city at night creating an image with accumulated time – not something one can actually experience … but something more. My earliest memories are from my apartment in Seattle on 6th and Yesler watching the shimmering water from the sunset on Elliott Bay and the lights starting to glow after dark. Twilight has always been a magical time of day for me.
My urban night photography series is about capturing the urban environment at night, creating images with accumulated time, not something one can actually experience in an instant, but something more. I find a special beauty in this alteration provided by night and night lighting. The unexpected rich color of night light transforms the city in which we work, play and live. Photography captures a moment in time but long exposures capture a sense of duration. People become ghosted or disappear as they pass through the frame. Elongated exposures can soften nature. Harsh waves, driven by the wind, are transformed to a soft velvet glow but the stillness that which does not move remains sharp and crisp. Man and nature co-mingling with the city lights create a ghostly amusement park.
I find a special beauty in the blending of city lights where we work, live, commute and play. The night has the ability to transform a place bringing life to the mundane with excitement, making it mysterious or romantic, or making it a dark and lonely place. My latest series is making High Dynamic Range (HDR) Panoramas. It takes at least 6 exposures to create one photo. First I create multiple HDR photographs in Photoshop and stitch them together to create the panoramas.