night photography in the mile-high city

date of activity: 12/7/08

I wanted to try my hand at some night photography in the city, so my wife & I headed into Denver on this Sunday evening a few weeks ago. I figured the Christmas lights on different buildings & along the 16th Street Mall would make for some interesting shots.

We parked (free on Sundays!) on Larimer, near 18th Street, and made our way over to the 16th Street Mall. We slowly strolled eastward on the mall until we reached the Civic Center Park. As dusk began to settle in and I scouted for a promising spot to set-up, I chose that moment to casually mention to my wife that the park is known for its illegal drug trade. She wasn’t terribly happy to hear this bit of news.

Even though it was getting dark, I convinced her it was okay to hang around since, besides the usual shady characters, and the people wandering around talking to themselves, and the skateboarders, and the homeless folks, there were also quite a few families with kids who were gathered on the west side of the park, waiting for the Christmas lights to come on at the City & County Building. There were also other photographers milling about. So as night came down in earnest, we all waited for the Christmas lights to come on. And waited. And waited. And waited. I guess because I had a camera set-up on a tripod, people kept coming up to us and asking if we knew when the Christmas lights would be turned on. I actually had no idea, so I just smiled and kept saying, “Well, it’s dark, so I thought they would’ve been on by now.”

Even after I’d wandered over to the other side of the park and taken a few shots of the State Capitol Building, the City & County Building still wasn’t lit up. And by that time, the coffee my wife had drunk earlier was beginning to… um, well, you know. She didn’t think it was very funny when I kept suggesting she use one of portable toilets there in the park. (They are SO foul.)

We decided we’d walk back down the 16th Street Mall, let her go potty in a safe, sanitary location (like Starbucks!), get a few shots along the mall and then of Union Station, and get the car. Then we’d drive back down to Civic Center Park and see if the Christmas lights on City Hall had been turned on by then. So that’s what we did. While walking back westward, I got a cool shot of the Daniels & Fisher Building in the background, and lights wrapped around trees on the mall in the foreground. I tipped the camera to about a 45 degree angle for this shot, to get a bit of a different composition. Then when we got down to Union Station, my wife was pretty nervous about me standing out in the street in order to get the shot I wanted. (Since then, I was asked by a transit online e-newsletter if they could use this photo in their publication.)

After collecting the Mini and driving back down to the park, we were delighted to find that the Christmas lights had (finally!) been turned on at the City & County Building. This was our first time viewing the decorations & lights and our reaction was somewhere between, “Geez, how gaudy!” and “Hmm, that is kind of neat.”

All in all, it was a fun outing. Having never before photographed at night, I experimented a bit with different shutter speeds & ISO settings & whatnot, and was pleased with the shots I came away with. I was very glad I had taken along my tripod, as this seems to be a key element to really successful night shots.

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich