Drizzly Downtown Tulsa
Twice a month a forum I regularly post in has a photo contest with a theme idea. For each contest the winner nominates themes for the next round and participants vote on which theme everyone will shoot for. It’s been a great way to try new things and shooting styles since the themes are generally broad in nature: fire, science, automobiles, misplaced, and so on. I went downtown this week to shoot and get ideas for this week’s theme: long exposures. I wasn’t really sure what to do but I’ve been in awe lately of the low hanging clouds that have been blocking some of downtown Tulsa’s taller buildings. I wanted to get a panoramic shot of the Bank of Oklahoma tower with clouds sweeping past it’s logo.
It was a drizzly night, and wet streets look amazing at night. Lots of film sets spray water on city street sets to give a nice shot, sometimes it doesn’t even make sense for the film since it will be bright and sunny but the concrete and asphalt will be moist.
This is right at the intersection of 3rd street and the end of Boston Avenue. This shot would be better if there was a building where the parking lot to the left of the intersection is. Otherwise its a little blank over there. I love the reflections in the bricks though. Mist was collecting on my lens, which I didn’t clean off. I think that may be part of the light reflections that appear towards the right of the middle. I’m not sure, I didn’t think front element dust caused that much diffraction.
I failed to get a panoramic shot of the BOK tower and city hall. I have lots of shots, either in 20mm or 50mm, but Photoshop just can’t seem to stitch them together in any way that looks pleasant. If i was further away I bet I could have pulled it off, but I wanted to shoot from the downtown park so I could get a real close view of each building.
There is a bridge that connects the downtown park to a lobby in the BOK tower. There was some construction going on it but it still looked open. I think the following is the shot I’m going to go with for the contest. I layered multiple exposures over each other to generate the final light effect. The BOK Center is visible in the background. I think there was a Miley Cyrus show going on or something, lots of kids wondering around towards the concert.
Almost the end of my outing I found a clock downtown, nothing special about it. I thought about doing something similar with taking multiple exposures and stacking the final image. The resulting image didn’t turn out exactly the same way. I wanted the minute hand to blur to indicate motion, but for some reason it looks very staggered. No idea what caused that, but the clock hand did move awkwardly (alternating between fast and slow motion). The time was correct so I think that is how it normally operates.
I left when my hands were cold. I found this on the way back to the car which I thought was cool. I don’t usually see steam coming up from underground in Tulsa.
