Streaks of Light

I have just got back a film that I used in my Polaroid 900Z – this is a fairly advanced compact camera from the end of the 1990s. In common with many later compacts it has a ‘night mode’ – this is a slow sync flash that fires the flash but also exposes for the ambient lighting – out in the street at night this can give some long shutter speeds. I have used this technique a lot, but have only recently started using it in night time streets. So here is a gallery of some light trail images, using the flash technique and without, and also handheld and not; using a tripod (or more often a wall or a bin).

Light Streaks

The image I was most looking forward to when I received the aforementioned film is ‘Streaking Bus in Headingley’ the first in this gallery. I fired the flash on this as the bus drove past, waiting until it was past me so as not to startle the drive. This has created an interesting image as the more defined area of the bus is at the rear of the streaks, with them moving out in front of it. This is the opposite to what we would normally look to do, which is why DSLRs often have a rear curtain flash that fires the flash as the shutter is closing, and allowing the trails to come towards the viewer. In this image, I feel it creates a nice effect.

I have been discussing this work with another photographer, Andreas Andrews, who also uses light trails and long exposures in his work, though often in his case with a very steady set up so that the background is rendered sharp and the trails very clean.  I think that both styles have their appeal – there is a definite calm to clean straight trails, but sometimes the atmosphere of a place is better rendered with some chaos and confusion. This was my aim in ‘Drunkscape’ (below), which I also used in my MA dissertation. Often “the reality of the image” is discussed in image based research about – this is clearly abstract to an extent, but one of my participants commented that the use of the long exposure as a visual technique captured the feel of the place (and so for my purposes worked better as an elicitation prompt) than a static image would.

This image taken in Westminster takes this effect to extremes, the many many lights burning a trail along the barrier which is seen in the bottom of the image. There is obvious over exposure creating an interesting solarization effect here.

The two images below of the A600 taken with the Smena 8M were shot to slide film – The first was taken with Rollei Cross Bird and cross-processed and the shot was handheld creating the more wavering trails.

The second was shot to Ektachrome Panther and processed E6 creating sharp and crisp colours almost as distinct as a digital file; the camera here was balanced on the barrier, but the lightweight camera still shook slightly.

This shot of the A600 taken with a Canon EOS 1000D shot used a star filter to create an extra effect.

For this image of Kings Cross I set the camera on the wall of the Betjeman Arms and used a shorter shutter speed to capture some of the shape of the bus rather than just a trail.

The final shots were taken in Meanwood – the shot of Monkbridge Road used a tripod and a small aperture to get the star effect, this gives a feeling of both speed and tranquility.

This shot on Stonegate Road used the star filter again for a busy jarring scene.

This final shot was taken with the Lomography Fish Eye 2, handheld. The Lomo Fisheye 2 has a dual flash firing at the start and the end of a bulb exposure and creates a double image and curved trails.