Thank you, Stan! Looking at your location, no doubt you are most likely a VOLS fan. Bama grad here. Hahaha! Stay healthy and thanks for the note!

Thank you, and right back at'cha! :-)

Very kind of you and much appreciated. Hope you and everyone else reading this stay safe as well. Here in China, things are actually getting better, although there is a fear of another outbreak. We spent 4.5 months in the apartment under quarantine and my wife and I both worked from home the entire time. Lessons learned: Wear a mask in public, distance, wash hands regularly and have a great sense of humor. Again, prayers for your health and safety.

Cordially,

Mark

Hello one and all,

I am Mark Lent, and I teach photography at a university in Suzhou, China and previously wrote for Popular Photography & Imaging Magazine. This section looks kinda fun, and this is my first post in it, and I am going to show you the simple way to shoot pretty night time photos. I have always heard this referred to as "Blue Hour" light. It is after/before "Golden hour", which is better known and is the 2 hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset, when the light has a golden hue. Blue hour is just after sunset or just before sunrise, but only lasts a short time, maybe 20-30 minutes. So, the idea is to plan. Know where you are going to shoot and the lens you plan to use before you go. You will need:

A camera that allow adjustments of shutter speeds and ISO- any camera that can do this is fine, even a cell phone with app software that allows you to change shutter speeds and aperture.

A tripod. You can do it without, but it limits what specifically you can do with shutter speeds. Tripods will give you the benefit of maximum sharpness and flexibility.

Patience... It is important. You may not make the images you want your first time out, but keep at it and your work will improve.

Planning... Know where the sun will set, what time it will set (You can ask Google for the sunset time in any city in the world). Scout the location and conditions before your shoot to ensure what you want to do is workable.

Equipment... this will vary with each person. I shoot with a carbon fiber tripod, a Nikon Z7 and I bring lenses from 14mm to 500mm (and among them, every single "mm" between those two!), extra batteries and even a chair if you can. Standing for 20 minutes, waiting for the light to improve can be difficult if you have leg or knee joint issues. Comfort is important!

When I make these images, I typically choose a very low ISO, and on me Z7 that equates to about 25 ISO. This allows me to accomplish two things. First, it is a higher quality level- lower ISO's equate to less noise. Next, if you are shooting along a river or other waterway, it allows the movement in the water to be smoothed out and have a less choppy appearance because you're using a longer shutter speed. This is where the tripod comes into play. long exposures require a tripod for exceptional sharpness. In these images, I typically choose two stops from the "wide open" aperture. In my 24-70 F4 Nikkor Z series lens, this means an aperture of F8.

The trick to making these look good is to not let the sky get too black before you start shooting. When the lights come on, even if the sky and scene are bright, start shooting and every few minutes, shoot a few more frames. You'll be amazed at the difference in the scene in a matter of minutes and eventually with practice, you'll get the hang of shooting Blue Light images. If you will notice, in the images I have shot and show here, you see the detail in such things as the trees. It is actually pseudo-night, but night enough where all of the detail still shows and the lights are on. Best of luck to you and if you have questions, please message me here. Best of luck!


Mark Lent
Pixeldawg

Greetings, Dave!

Without sounding too preachy I hope, this is why I post from China. Americans in particular- me being one of them- know so little about China and much of what they know is either completely wrong or highly misunderstood. In my images, I try to give people something nice to look at while learning a little as well and happy to see you get that. It is frustrating though because I am constantly getting comments about being a communist (I am not...) or lying (I don't...). It is what it is and many unfortunately keep a closed mind.

Thanks again for the nice comment and stay healthy.

Thank you for looking and be well.

Hi Bob,

Thanks for looking!

Hi Ed!

I know nothing about birds or their types, but was told it is a "Black Crowned Night Heron". Does not look too black to me, and in fact, the thing that struck me was his color. Thanks for taking a look!

Thanks so much, Bret!

Hello all,

It has been incredibly busy here this semester and our classes have had to be completely reworked because we had students literally from around the world that were online. On top of that, trying to teach the 3D animation software Maya to complete beginners presents its' own issues as well. Maya is considered the single most difficult software to learn as well, so there's that too. We here in China are returning to a somewhat "normal" life, but because of our jobs, my wife and I have some travel restrictions and have decided to do the "Stay-cation" and visit places in and around the city of Suzhou, where we live. So, during the weekends when we are off, we will "explore" the areas of Suzhou and surrounding countryside that we have not been to. Here are five of the images I made. I have a "public" album on Facebook with the other images and will be adding to it. Hope you enjoy and be healthy.

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. Quite honestly though, it seems like everyone gets a trophy and gets their feelings hurt if someone has a suggestion or comment about their work. So be it. Ultimately, there is no growth in what you do when you are like this, and who wants that? I also see no real moderation here, which I think is problematic as well. I moderated the Popular Photography forum before they folded, along with 6 other people and it thrived. Here it seems everyone is so touchy. Just not for me. To the 38 people who sent me notes both here and on Facebook, thanks so much, and I appreciate each of your comments. Time to look elsewhere though, I think. I tend to be "plain spoken" and I don't want to get people butt ugly if I speak the honest truth.

Take care and best wishes for all of your success.

Thank you. A bit worse than the measles though. My wife and I were in America and came back to Shanghai and are having to spend 2 full weeks in quarantine... Free to roam the world, indeed. Everywhere but UHH now, I think. ;-), but will land somewhere else.

I suppose much of this is spot-on. I tend to expect people to say "This is right, this is wrong or why did you do this the way you did?". Just not sure this is a good place for me. I am big into jumping in and mentoring, which I tried to do there and does not seem to be wanted or appreciated. I like to discuss images and feel like I learn from other seasoned professionals and love talking to amateur and hobbyist because they often have a differing and fresh perspective that I often like and appreciate. And WHY would you do a thing like photography, post your work in a forum and not want to make any improvement(s) to your work? Makes no sense to me.

Thanks once and all for the responses, I appreciate each of them.

This has changed since I first signed up. Just don't think this is going to work for me. If this is so, and I believe from your post it is, might I suggest to the moderators/powers that be that you make a separate heading for critiques, so there is no misunderstanding?

Last time I looked, the description for the Gallery also included critiques. It is what it is and maybe I should look for another group that is more inclined to discuss the images. Simply stating "nice shot" is pretty boring and mostly not something I care to read.