Sodium vapour and moonlight...

It's way after dark before I decide to go out for a ride and a bit of photography, but having made the decision to travel as lightly as possible I decide against using a tripod and elect to shoot with available light.

I have six fast aperture lenses - the fastest being f/1.4, but on this occasion I dig out a little used lens that I bought some years ago when I still shot with film. For some reason or other this particular optic fell out of favour and it was high time it got some exercise.

I'm cycling along the seafront of Bournemouth, keeping an eye out for potential subjects, when my progress is eventually arrested by the buildup of wind-blown sand on the promenade: it's too deep to ride through. I push the bike for a hundred metres or so and take a number of photographs of a refreshment kiosk (long closed for the day: maybe the winter), but it's the scene behind me that produces a spark of creativity.

Light levels are very low, and despite the fact that I'm shooting with the lens wide open shutter speeds are appallingly low for hand held photography. The fact that I'm using a wide angle lens helps enormously to achieve a sharp image at such slow speeds, but I have to be careful with technique.  My only real option is to rack-up the ISO to get something manageable. Now, the camera I am using is ancient technology in digital terms (5 years old) and huge progress has been made since those days in digital sensor arrays, and no doubt modern cameras would leave mine standing with high ISO settings, but I have little choice. Digital noise will be a problem.

Contrast is through the roof, so I switch to manual and take a spot meter reading from the sand beneath the light, and add a further 1⅓ stop exposure to my settings to stop the beach recording as a mid grey. I let the lamp burn out in the image. I also decide to leave the ghosting created by the lens as it adds to the atmosphere. I do attempt to correct the colour balance from the orange glow of the sodium vapour lamps used to illuminate the beach front after dark, but because it is a discontinuous spectrum it is not possible for a full correction. I thought you would like to know that.


20mm f/1.8 D EX DG Sigma lens. 1/20 second at f/1.8. ISO 2500


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