Occupy The Night

One Friday night that I magically had off from shooting a high school football game, my friend and I decided to head to downtown Detroit to check out the Occupy Detroit protest that had just begun the day before. After a scenic drive down Woodward, we arrived in Grand Circus Park just about at Midnight, cameras in hand, read to get some photos of the protests, but everyone had apparently already gone to bed. All we saw were tents and a couple of DPD cars. So, to save the night we drove around Foxtown, and I jumped out of the car for a few quick shots of the stadiums.

The image above was shot on the street between Comerica Park and Ford Field, looking Southeast toward the Ren Cen. The image below is of the same scene, only I shot it with a much slower shutter speed, approximately 1/15 of a second. I also zoomed in with my lens as I held down the shutter release button. I like to do this camera trick to create a motion blur effect when there  is little motion, but lots of points of light to create trails. I think this image is successful because I like the twisted result on the lamp posts.

Finally, this is might be the best image I got of the night. It is of the Detroit baseball field Comerica Park, where the MLB team the Tigers play. They were all done by now. I actually took this shot while siting in the car, my friend just rolled down the window and I snapped off a couple of shots. I was surprised at how crisp the focus came out in such dark light and with a slow shutter speed at 1/30 of a second, while slow rolling in a car.