Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Vancouver

Vancouver Skyline

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

I have been so fortunate for so many years. I have been able to travel the world over, and photograph places of incredible beauty. By itself, the Vancouver, BC skyline is rather generic. But when you add all of the lights in the foreground, somehow the whole image transforms to a glowing piece of art. It was unimaginably pleasant to be able to sit and watch this scene and be creative and earning a living at the same time. I also have to add that the air in Vancouver is among the freshest that I have ever sample and the company of the woman who accompanied me on this trip (I almost always travel alone) was cherished.

When photographing reflections on moving water, keep in mind that the longer your exposure, the smoother the water will be. A longer exposure will let your colors run straight and un-interupted from their source to their tip. Conversely, a faster shutter speed will ad texture to the water making it look more like water with reflections on it. Think of it as reflections on a lake (with the slower shutter speed) versus reflections on a moving river (with the shorter shutter speeds). This image falls somewhere in the middle. I always bracket my exposures in a situation like this. You never know what the customer will want and its best to have it all on file.

I am posting my images several times a week. Along with the images are creative and technical comments as well as the occasional piece of business news and/or advice. If you would like to receive a FREE e-mail with my posts, each time I post,  just enter your e-mail address under the FOLLOW THIS BLOG label on the upper left hand side of this page.

Any questions, just drop me a line at brad@bradrickerby.com.

Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Bangkok

Chao Praya River, Bangkok, Thailand

Photo by Brad Rickerby

I love taking photos like this. I was in my hotel room, sitting with an espresso, clicking the shutter every so often. It was a grand cityscape under a uniquely colored sky.

One thing to keep in mind when taking an image like this, shot through the glass in a window. Keep your lens hood (or lens, but better with hood) directly against the glass. Or as much as possible against the glass taking into account the scene you wish to capture. Doing this will eliminate most or all of the reflections from the glass. Also, the use of a telephoto lens will shoot right through any dirt or other foreign objects on the glass. This image was created with a 300 mm f 2.8 lens. This is a digital image shot at f 16 at 8 seconds.

Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - New York City

There is a very small park in Brooklyn. Between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. Parking is easy after 6 PM. Don't ask me how to get there by subway. Once you get there you have to climb out on the rocks. Get as close to the water as you can. Even on an overcast day like this one, tourists are going to get in your way if you give them a chance.

I love playing with reflections on flowing water. A change in your shutter speed totally changes how the water looks. The slower the shutter speed, the smoother the water gets. This images was created digitally with a 100 film speed, a 17 mm lens setting (on a 17 to 35 mm lens) and was shot at f 4.5 at 15 seconds.

For the record, the dashing white lights in the sky are a helicopter going by. An agency editor (from I won't say which agency) rejected this image because they could not figure out what the white dots were, they thought they were noise. Once those dots were removed the photo was accepted.

Fine Art Color Cityscape Urban Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Hong Kong

Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

This, in the end, is the style that I enjoy shooting most. I love to create chaotic images that express the dynamism and intensity of the cities I love most. I keep going back to Hong Kong, over and over and over again for this very reason. Images of Hong Kong are also sell very well, although this one has never sold. It has far too many trademarks and business names (in two languages) to ever be commercially acceptable.

Creating this image required sitting in the middle of Nathan Road (there is an island) with the camera set on a tripod. I used a focal length of about 50 mm (its a 28 to 70 mm f 2.8 lens) with the f-stop set at 16. I then varied the shutter to speed anywhere from 1/60 to 30 seconds depending on the amount of traffic coming at me. I started shooting just prior to dusk and kept on until the last vestiges of light had left the sky. A lot of the success in creating this type of image comes from experimentation and from firing a lot of exposures (film used to cost me a mint back in the day when I used it.)

To view more of my work and for more information generally, please visit my web site at http://www.bradrickerby.com

Limited Edition prints of this photograph are available for purchase. Please contact me by email at brad@bradrickerby.com.