Project: Walking Nighttime

Following a talk by Laura Pannack at Somerset House I continued with my walking photography experiments. This time using the night timelapse functionality on the GoPro. I decided to use the picture mode instead of video to allow me to use individual frames as discrete images that record parts of the walk. Even though the streets between Somerset and Holborn tube station are well light I knew that the GoPro given the sensor size would need to use longer exposure times to record the individual frames from the walk introducing some interesting motion blur into each frame.

After the walk transferred the raw information into Lightroom to start the culling and selection process. My intention was to select individual images or clusters of sequential images that represented key parts of the walk or observed items on the walk.

The first image I selected was a single image of a London bus the is both indexical and iconic in nature. The main subject is unmistakably a Red London bus even though it is blurred within the frame.

Iconic Red London BusThe second image is a layered image as I walk up the steps approaching Aldwych with the signage of from the theatre clearly visible in the image though the detail is not fully resolved. Here I decided to merge multiple exposures together to enhance the walking and to introduce more balance to the image. The individual images from did not provide enough emphasis to the steps in the foreground which are the primary driver for the direction of travel at this stage of the walk.

I had considered experimenting with combining all of the individual frames from the walk into a super image that isa representation of the light captures throughout the walk. This concept is based on the work of Hiroshi Sugimto where he uses a single frame to represent the watching of a film in a Movie Theatre. Given the fact the camera point of view is not static is likely to produce purely random image however it is worth consideration and further experimentation.

Given the results from these initial experiments I think they are worth consideration for incorporation into my research project. Though I plan to undertake additional micro projects in this space before concluding on a preferred approach.