We are still in the middle of the glorious long summer nights here in the UK but here’s a little project you can start now and continue through the winter months.
Pick a location on your way home from work. Don’t go off the beaten track, keep to your normal journey so that this won’t become a chore as the winter comes around.
One evening, every week until next summer take a photograph in your chosen location.
Try to find somewhere there is a handy wall or set of railings where you can rest your camera. This is going to come in very handy as the light drops later in the year.
If you can find a scene that includes a road you will get some interesting light trails form the cars as the light level drops.
You can use more or less any camera for this. A digital SLR is great but it is a lot of weight to carry around. If you have a compact (point and shoot) camera make sure you turn off the flash and try taking a photo in a very dark room. Most modern digital compact cameras will take long exposures even if you can’t control the shutter speed yourself.
It’s also a good idea to make sure you know how the self timer works on your camera. Using the self timer can reduce camera shake in long exposures and that’s going to come in very handy as the nights draw in.
What you do with your photographs from this project is up to you. If you find a really interesting spot you might want to create a series of photographs showing the location throughout the year. If you only get one image you are happy with you haven’t spent much time on the project and you can look back through all the photographs and think about what makes some images more interesting than others.
