Zoomville...

[bentcountershaft]

...or Louiszoom. Couldn't decide. Anyway, I'm mostly happy with this one and learned a bit. Here's what I did and then what I'll do different next time.

I shot at 100 ISO, f14 with a 20 second exposure. I started on the wide end, beginning zooming immediately as smoothly as I could for approximately 17 seconds then held the last 3 seconds at full zoom to put the emphasis on that point.

Next time I'm going to try to hold a little longer at the end for more emphasis without loosing too much of the movement I hope. I'll try 4,5 and 6 seconds and see how that does. The only other thing that bugs me that I can control is for a smoother zoom action. I'm thinking of draping a ribbon or string over the zoom ring and pulling on one end while keeping tension on the other. Hopefully without making my camera move in the process. If anyone has any other suggestions or comments I'd love to hear them. Thanks for looking.

 

[LaFoto]

This is a good result of a fun experiment! I like it a lot. I find your zoom lines very smooth! I doubt any of my lenses still zoom as smoothly as yours apparently does!

 

[bentcountershaft]

Thanks, it just seemed a little jittery to me while I was doing it.

 

[nchips1]

Wow, :thumbup:

 

[freeze3kgt]

looks like your about to hit plaid



.... if no one gets it a reference to space balls

 

[R.D.]

It really cool, and maybe I'm talking out of my lack of knowledge but could you use the tallest building there as a centered subject and focal point.. or would that be to "cliche'?"

still I am going to have to try this one day.

 

[kundalini]

:thumbsup:

One suggestion for your reshoot.... try to get a shot after sunset, but before dark while there is still some light reflected in the sky.

 

[Glycerol Sound]

I like it! I'm surprised at how smooth the lines are with you zooming the lens and all, I usually use a remote on longer exposures like that. How many re takes did you have on that haha

 

[bentcountershaft]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions. I kinda got lucky with my placement as I had no intentions of taking that shot when I got there. I had just left a concert upstream and was taking a completely different shot when it occurred to me. I kind of like how I centered between those two shorter building though.

I took three of these. One other like this but the focus wasn't quite as sharp and the third I started zoomed in and pulled back which I didn't like near as much. It looked nifty but all the detail was buried beneath the blur.

I'm definitely thinking of doing the next shot during twilight I'm just unsure as to whether it's sunset or sunrise. Earlier in the year I was here for a sunset shot but a lot the building's lights weren't on yet. I'm assuming they're on timers and since the sun goes down a couple hours later than it did then I might be ok now. I like the idea of a sunrise shot and most of the lights are still on then except for the tower in the tallest shot if I remember right. They turn it off at midnight and I don't think they turn it on in the morning.

Thanks to you all for the comments they're definitely appreciated.

 

[bentcountershaft]

Just posting a pic of the alternate take. Shot the opposite of the one above, started zoomed in then pulled out, just in case anyone is interested what it looks like in comparison. I think it's a little more abstract but not nearly as appealing as the first one. Thanks for looking.

 

[Robin Usagani]

It looks like you have a decent tripod

 

[edouble]

Very cool

 

[supraman215]

I wonder if it would look any good to hold focus for like 10 seconds then slowly unfocus for 10 seconds? That might be an interesting experiment also. Might give a natural halo around everything. Love these pics though. Very creative.

 

[LaFoto]

You're right, the first has some more definition to the buildings in the end, while in the second all structures get lost in the zooming process.
You wanted to go back and try to stay zoomed out for longer, so the buildings get even better defined? Worth a try, I should say.

 

[flyingember]

I always like light as an art medium shots

I second a few comments above. try a different time of the night. these light-only shots really pop when you have a colored background at dusk. also, if you can at all tell what the object is, make it your point of focus.

if you have a lens that works, try the same shot starting more zoomed and ending even more zoomed or else crop the photo so the zoom goes off the picture to lose the big black band at the top