RbN4 – Watching and waiting Photo

Photographer’s Note

RbN4 – Watching and waiting

This is for the time being the last tandem Nighthunt posting. This one is taken during the first NightHunt with Rinie on the Cruise terminal on the Wilhelmina Pier.

In the foreground is the mobile walkway that connects the cruise terminal with the cruise ships, providing a sheltered access for the passengers.
The mobile walkway signals its presence by its red light and is waiting for the next customer. During the 2005 cruise season some 23 ships will call at the Rotterdam Cruise terminal.

Behind is the middle part of Norman Fosters Word Port Centre. This building hosts the offices and the traffic control facilities of the Rotterdam Port Authority and municipal services as the Fire Department.

One of the things I really like about night shots is that the glass façade of modern buildings, during daytime only reflecting its surroundings, become permeable, giving the eye the opportunity to roam the interior spaces and giving the building a more personal appearance.

In this capture these two elements are also in view, but in this case taken from a much bigger distance and with the mobile walkway connected to the biggest cruiseship in the world, the Queen Mary 2.

In Rinies posting there’s capture of the fascinating Blaak railway/subway station.

PCS2 tech: corrected for perspective distortion; slightly cropped, contrast, levels, curves & saturation (differentially) adjusted; USM-ed; added a frame and saved for the web.

exif data

Camera Manufacturer : OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Camera Model : C8080WZ
Exposure time [s] : 1300/100 (tripod used)
F-Number : F 7.1
Exposure program : Aperture priority (3)
ISO speed ratings : 50
EXIF version : 02.20
Date taken : 2005:08:28 00:48:22
Exposure bias value : -17/10
Focal length : 110 mm
Colour space : sRGB
Image width : 3264
Image length : 2448
Exposure mode : Manual (1)
White balance : Auto (0)
Contrast : Normal (0)
Saturation : High (2)
Sharpness : Hard (2

Rinie_Hoff, Xalkida, alvaraalto, Fixfocus, jhm, cmartos has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Rinie_Hoff (9334) 2005-09-14 15:20

Yo strak, Bert!
The walkway looks like some toy thing while actually it is very big. The supports look so tiny. I love the lines of the walkway, and the lines of the building combined. This is the building where I would love to 'work' or to look out of the window to the harbour.
Lovely light and very nice lit offices.
I had a lot of fun, night hunting with you!

Xalkida (11740) 2005-09-14 15:37

Very nice and sharp nightshot Bert.

I like the vivid colors, the perfect handle of lighting and the... theme! :)

Very nice.

Fixfocus (9377) 2005-09-15 4:44

Salut Bert,
Nice play with lines and colors in this beautiful nightshot.Artistic composition with perfect exposure control!
Doei,
hermann

jhm (83378) 2005-09-15 8:14

Goedenmiddag Bert,
Het is een foto met meerdere facetten, maar eerst de scherpte is perfect evenals de kleuren mogen absoluut gezien worden, het nacht werk is zeker niet voor niets geweest want ook dit beeld mag gezien worden, het bijzondere voor mij is het groot gebouw op de achtergrond die bijzonder past in dit geheel hier! Maar er voldoende steun nietwaar!
Goed werk Bert
John.

cmartos (6086) 2005-09-15 10:03

Hi Bert! What a typical image from you. Fine and strong almost monochromatic picture, with bold lines and shapes. But again, what makes the strongness of this picture is the orange cast with a soft night lighting, very well managed exposure indeed! The few lightened offices act as counterpart, balancing the rest of the soft lightened shapes and lines.

Take care!

pamastro (7213) 2005-09-15 12:25

Again another nice shot. And as you say the night offers a completely different view on these buildings and that is one of the things I like about seeing them at night. And I think this view shows your good eye for finding graphic like scenes in the spaces around you. But I think a couple things might make it a little better. One would be a rotation or skewing so any perspective distortion or tilt here would be corrected and the lines would be truly horizontal and vertical. And possibly a little bit of a crop at both right and bottom so the walkway acts more as a frame around the edge. Although that might be fine as it is as the red light, walkway and yellow light make a nice diagonal across the scene. But other than those two little notes it is another well spotted scene in your urban landscape and once again shows your eye for these types of photos.

[workshop] [compare] +

nwoehnl (120) 2005-09-15 23:05

Hi Bert. Again an interestingly framed geometrical piece from the harbor. Good play with the patterns, and the fact how they are relatively aligned to each other even affords some good perspective. The flashing red light is a special and vivid detail.

Hanssie (9133) 2005-09-23 14:03

That's a nice view on the mobile walkway, Bert, a modern picture and I like the red light as a fine detail !

MiguelP (14336) 2005-09-27 16:25

Hola Bert: I like this misterious shot (almost for me) it has kind of futuristic atmosphere, like a science-fiction movie but with a human touch as "Blade Runner" or so. You are right about modern building, they are designed like this for the chief control who´s doing extra time at work from the pub downstairs :-)