University of Portland at Night

As I've been wanting to do more night photography, I'm always on the lookout for more places to set up my camera and tripod to get some good night shots. I stumbled upon the University of Portland campus and found one spot that I thought would be perfect for some night photography. Immediately when I saw that the bell tower was lit at night right next to the chapel, I knew I would be coming here. I got to the campus right as the sun was setting, so I walked around while I waited for the skies to grow a little bit darker. I loved the architecture of Clark Library, which had an entire wall composed of glass windows. Right next to Clark Library was Franz Hall. 

I headed across the quad to set up for the shot that I had been waiting for. I first had to get a photo of the chapel door's details. The wood working was amazing and had such detail in it. 

I knew that I wanted to photograph the chapel with the bell tower in the background. I shot this from multiple different angles, which all gave a slightly different look. The look also changed dramatically with the changing light. 

After I had gotten some "safe shots", I decided it was time to have some fun. :) I tried experimenting with longer exposures and rolling the focus ring or zoom ring during the exposure to get some different photo effects. These were my favorite two images that I got using these different techniques. I especially like the halo effect that was created and the beams of light that came from the crosses. It created a more interesting look to the campus landmarks that have probably been photographed numerous times before.

There was a garden right next to the bell tower and chapel and I decided to go check this out. 

In the middle of the courtyard was a sculpture. I liked how the stained glass window for the chapel was illuminated, but the rocks were not. I took a few shots, but you could not really make out the rocks as well as I would have liked. I took a long exposure and ran around with my iPhone flashlight and put it on each rock for about 5 seconds. Because the long exposure averages everything, I knew that I could walk around the shot and not be seen, but the light from my phone would show up because of its intensity. Kind of cool that I was invisible in the photo! 

It was definitely fun to get to try out some new techniques with the night photography and will continue to keep trying new ideas out when I get the chance.