Field Notes
Magic hour, when the sun has set and before dark, is ideal for urban photography as the remains of the cool, ambient light combine nicely with the warm tones from the city lights. Canterbury has a particularly attractive old town and on a clear night the light is ideal for photographing it. This shot was taken with a wide angle lens and cropped to a pano close to a 16:9 aspect ratio to keep the roofline at the top in view and not chop off the base of the street lamp to the right. The exposure is timed to coincide with the optimal period when the ambient and tungsten lights are in perfect harmony for the best results. Watching the light unfold in this way is thorouughly enjoyable and one of the great pleasures of landscape photography.