El Nigromante at Night
03/21/09 05:04 PM Filed in: Mexico
The other night, I was waiting for Laura to finish an evening of readings at a poetry workshop. (Laura is a poet). To fill the time, I took out my little Olympus point-and-shoot camera and played with it, to see how well I could capture night scenes.
The poetry readings were being held in the auditorium on the second floor of Bellas Artes, formerly the cloister of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, founded in 1754. Today it is a cultural center, a space for all kinds of artistic actvities: painting, sculpture, music and much more.
I stood outside the auditorium. Looking to the south, I saw the two-story arcade topped by an 18th-century bell tower that dominates the view.
To take this image, I steadied the camera against a stone pillar, clamping it in place with my hand. I set the camera’s self timer to open the shutter two seconds after pressing the shutter release, to minimize vibration induced by my trigger finger. Otherwise, I let the camera do the work, setting the focus and exposure. The image took about four seconds to complete. The results were better than I expected: a little blurring, whether from the autofocus locking on to the tree leaves instead of the arches, or some vibration from my hands getting through, I can’t tell. A mural depicting artisans at work decorated the wall immediately behind me. An incandescent lamp provided the only lighting.
The colors in this image seem fairly close to the actual colors of the painting, despite illumination only by tungsten light. I walked around to the south arcade, positioning myself in the second-floor archway. Resting the Olympus on the wall between the columns supporting the arches, I shot across the courtyard to capture the mural from a distance.
The bright lights have blown out—probably unavoidable in a night shot. From another vantage point on the second-level gallery, I photographed the dome of Los Monjas—that portion of the convent that remains a working church to this day.
The dome is a landmark, second as a San Miguel icon only to the façade of the Parroquia. A few days after the night photography session, I returned Los Monjas, wandering inside. I wanted to capture how the dome admits light to what would otherwise be just another gloomy Mexican sanctuary. The architect modeled Los Monjas on the design of the Chapel of Les Invalides in Paris, bequeathing San Miguel one of its loveliest buildings. Domes like this were difficult and expensive to build, but how beautiful they are.
The little Olympus point-and-shoot is not really up to this kind of photography. The interior shot isn’t too bad, but the nighttime images contain a lot of noise. I see that newer high-end cameras like the nikon D300 take noise-free images at ASA 800 and above. When the technology they employ becomes cheaper in a year or two, it’ll be time for me to upgrade, and hand-held shots in natural light will become as easy as daylight snaps.
The poetry readings were being held in the auditorium on the second floor of Bellas Artes, formerly the cloister of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, founded in 1754. Today it is a cultural center, a space for all kinds of artistic actvities: painting, sculpture, music and much more.
I stood outside the auditorium. Looking to the south, I saw the two-story arcade topped by an 18th-century bell tower that dominates the view.
To take this image, I steadied the camera against a stone pillar, clamping it in place with my hand. I set the camera’s self timer to open the shutter two seconds after pressing the shutter release, to minimize vibration induced by my trigger finger. Otherwise, I let the camera do the work, setting the focus and exposure. The image took about four seconds to complete. The results were better than I expected: a little blurring, whether from the autofocus locking on to the tree leaves instead of the arches, or some vibration from my hands getting through, I can’t tell. A mural depicting artisans at work decorated the wall immediately behind me. An incandescent lamp provided the only lighting.
The colors in this image seem fairly close to the actual colors of the painting, despite illumination only by tungsten light. I walked around to the south arcade, positioning myself in the second-floor archway. Resting the Olympus on the wall between the columns supporting the arches, I shot across the courtyard to capture the mural from a distance.
The bright lights have blown out—probably unavoidable in a night shot. From another vantage point on the second-level gallery, I photographed the dome of Los Monjas—that portion of the convent that remains a working church to this day.
The dome is a landmark, second as a San Miguel icon only to the façade of the Parroquia. A few days after the night photography session, I returned Los Monjas, wandering inside. I wanted to capture how the dome admits light to what would otherwise be just another gloomy Mexican sanctuary. The architect modeled Los Monjas on the design of the Chapel of Les Invalides in Paris, bequeathing San Miguel one of its loveliest buildings. Domes like this were difficult and expensive to build, but how beautiful they are.
The little Olympus point-and-shoot is not really up to this kind of photography. The interior shot isn’t too bad, but the nighttime images contain a lot of noise. I see that newer high-end cameras like the nikon D300 take noise-free images at ASA 800 and above. When the technology they employ becomes cheaper in a year or two, it’ll be time for me to upgrade, and hand-held shots in natural light will become as easy as daylight snaps.
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