The Downtown Dayton Partnership sponsored a photography contest titled Light Up Dayton. As part of it, the businesses and residents of downtown were encouraged to leave their lights on Friday May 1st to make the Dayton Skyline more photogenic. I actually didn't make it downtown on the first, but many of the lights were still on Saturday night as well. Plus on Saturday night, it wasn't raining. That's a good thing since I don't have any protective gear for my cameras against rain and water. I spent most of the night outside at the Dayton Art Institute. There is a nice drive along the back of the building that overlooks the river and the city. This was nice, but I quickly tired of the plain-jane shots. Something was missing, plus I figured shots from that overlook had been taken thousands of times. So I wandered off, around the side of the building, into the grass, into the mulched beds, laying on the ground, looking for those more interesting views. My goal was to have something of interest in the foreground as well as the city in the background. Before going home I made a quick stop in the Patterson bridge as well. Here are my favorites from that night.
If you are wondering about the starburst on the lights, that is caused by diffraction of the light coming into the lens through a small aperture. The intersections of the blades used to control the size of the aperture are responsible for the points of the star. There are special filters for sale that produce this effect, but it was achieved here without them. I shared this with another photographer who was on the bridge that night, but unfortunately he didn't have a tripod. Holding his camera against the railing, he was able to take a shot with a small enough aperture to see the effect even though there was still motion blur. The sun is a good target for this effect when you don't have a tripod because you can keep the shutter speed fast enough for hand held shots.
If you are wondering about the starburst on the lights, that is caused by diffraction of the light coming into the lens through a small aperture. The intersections of the blades used to control the size of the aperture are responsible for the points of the star. There are special filters for sale that produce this effect, but it was achieved here without them. I shared this with another photographer who was on the bridge that night, but unfortunately he didn't have a tripod. Holding his camera against the railing, he was able to take a shot with a small enough aperture to see the effect even though there was still motion blur. The sun is a good target for this effect when you don't have a tripod because you can keep the shutter speed fast enough for hand held shots.
