Exploring at night

One of my ways of exploring a new city is taking an evening and doing some night shooting.

For me, this usually means capturing long exposures to create light trails.

I usually use a carbon fiber tripod for this because of its light weight. Another good option is a Gorillapod. I've found these bendable tripods to be great for traveling, especially when space is limited. If I have to, I can bend the legs up and it fits into the top half of my camera backpack.

On this trip to Edinburgh, I brought a Peak Design carbon fiber tripod because I wanted the height flexibility for other shooting I've got planned.

The next piece is identifying a location in a city that will have two things - lots of traffic for light trails and a landmark in the background to add interest to the picture. Flickr is a great way to search for locations.

With only three days to spend in Edinburgh, I settled on the Balmoral Hotel. Its clock tower is a landmark, and its home on Princes Street includes a lot of traffic. (There are tons of landmarks in Edinburgh, but not many have good traffic access nearby.)

The shot was 30 seconds on my Sony a7R4A. The lens is a Sigma 24-70 f2.8 DG DN Art II at 29mm and F8. It was still early evening, so I added four stops with a B+W variable neutral density filter.

The buses in Edinburgh tend to bunch up, and I was lucky to get four or five passing in that 30 seconds, as well as a couple of cars.

Night shooting in a city is a good way to make a lasting memory of it. What do you enjoy shooting at night?