Vindauga

Okay, I don’t, it would be really too dark for me to see. But I do like to take pictures at night.But, because I am mentally deficient, I can’t seem to remember/figure out how to upload photos to this site. But now I have learned the power of hosting images else where while exhibiting them here.

This is a picture of the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. During WW2 it was used as a hospital. My grandfather was sent here (which happened to be in his hometown) when he was pulled off the front because of frostbite. But since the trip back to America took a month, he was almost entirely recovered when he got here. So, he did as his doctor’s said and played golf all day; once in the morning and once in the afternoon. sweet! This wasn’t the night that I decided to suddenly start talking night shots, this night was a consequence of an earlier expedition. The thing about this picture that totally blows me away though is that my dinky little Canon Powershot A610 can capture stars!

This image was taken the night I suddenly got it into my head to see how far I could push my point-and-shoot. I was really impressed with the quality of the images this camera can take and that range of conditions it works in. In fact, this night of shooting really got me thinking about the capacity of digital cameras in general. I have always been frustrated by the limitations of film cameras. Don’t get me wrong, striving against the limitations of a device is one of the best ways to produce some truly wonderful images. I just couldn’t ever understand why in situations that my eyes could see perfectly well my camera couldn’t. If you have ever seen someone who is back-lit or ever tried to make your own Benneton ad you know what I am talking about. Film works really well within a specific range but it lacks the capacity to produce over a broad sample of ranges. Again, some really neat stuff can come from this. the Zone system that Adams worked with is an example of how we can function even within a limited system.

But I had a revelation the night I went out and pushed my little digital beyond what it should have reasonably been able to do. Digital, unlike film, is interpreted. This might sound terribly bad but because of the interpretation it more accurately represents the manner in which we see (I’m not saying that it is more objectively true only that digital functions more like vision). Our vision runs through a kind of processor; we interpret the information and tweak parts of it to make it more understandable. Its why we can see someone who is back-lit. Its why we can handle very dark situations even when there is an incredibly bright light in the scene. I am suddenly enamored with digital cameras.

The picture above is a 13 second exposure at f2.8

This is downtown Tampa as seen from the campus of University of Tampa, across the Hillsborough River. It’s a 5 second exposure at f2.8 I got to downtown late, like after midnight, so most of the artistic lighting was shut down. For example, the minarets at UT were not lit. But you can see that it is still pretty bright down there. I like this not only because the grass at UT is really popping out (mostly because they don’t seem to use sodium vapor lights) but also because you can see the Tampa Museum of Art in the central portion of the photograph. Why do I think this is cool? Because as soon as the plans get formalized, they are going to tear that building down and build a new museum farther back from that water. They have already gotten rid of most of the really cool trees in the strange park that was on top of the Museum’s parking garage (towards the cylindrical building). Basically, its another gentrification project. They want to make downtown more appealing at night, by adding things like Starbucks and by creating a river walk. I have my doubts about the success of this endeavor.

Anyway, I should be doing other things. More pictures will have to wait.