What am I doing at Brooklyn Bridge Park at 4am?

Post by fotolistic on May 2nd, 2010 In Category : Photography

What was I doing at Brooklyn Bridge Park at 4 in the morning? I was scheduled to do an engagement shoot for this lovely couple who wanted to capture the beautiful sunrise from the Brooklyn Bridge. I never get up before sunrise and the thought of possibly oversleeping got me feeling a little nervous. Tossing and turning in bed for hours. Finally, at 3:30am, I left the apartment and drove over to DUMBO and thought I’d catnap in the car. Nope, didn’t happen, I know that it take a miracle before I’d come out this early again in the near future. I took full advantage of the currently desolate neighborhood usually swamped with tourists. So there I was, with all my camera gear, walking up and down Old Fulton Street like a lost rat. A police officer, parked by the ice cream factory, actually drove up and as if I was lost… must’ve been the confused look on my face. Anyway, I think I got some great shots that night/morning.

All photographs were shot in Raw Format with my Canon 5D
I used either a 16mm – 35mm f/2.8 Lens or the 50mm f/1.4 Lens at ISO 100-3200.
Full Manual shooting mode.
Post processed with Aperture and Photoshop CS4.

For the follow two shots, I set the camera down on to a railing for the long exposure.
ISO 400 f/5.6 30sec 16mm

ISO 400 f/13 30sec 16mm

Closer crop of the above photo.

I used manual focus and tried out some bokeh effects. Pretty cool. These are handheld shots.
Probably what Manhattan would look like from Brooklyn if you were extremely nearsighted.

ISO 1600 f/1.4 1/100sec 50mm

ISO 1600 f/1.4 1/100sec 50mm

Looking down from Old Fulton Street. I set the camera on top of a USPS mailbox for the following shots.
I couldn’t resist doing one of those streaked light photos; the ultimate cliche for nighttime photos.
And now, I got myself a cliche light streak shot just like everyone else. And I love the results.
ISO 100 f/11 10sec 50mm

ISO 100 f/11 10sec 50mm

ISO 100 f/20 30sec 50mm

ISO 100 f/11 10sec 50mm

Finally I wandered into the park and kept seeing things moving from the corner of my eye. Suddenly, a thought came to me, "this is usually how horror and murder mystery movie begins", and I am the star of this scene. Then, something really did caught my eyes, the first light of the day, the time when vampires goes back into hiding. And it just made me feel a whole lot better.
Handheld
ISO 3200 f/2.8 1/100sec 16mm