Photography After Dark

This past Thursday evening my friend Jennifer and I took a photography class with Mark Trutz, a professional photographer, at the Toronto Botanical Gardens in Toronto.  The two of us had taken classes with Mark earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed them.  He is a good teacher.
For this class we were to bring our digital camera, a tripod and a flashlight as this class was to be outside in the dark.  Our first stop outside was the section with the dalhias.  Mark showed us how to place the flashlight so that the light would come through the bloom.  This is done by setting the shutter speed for a delay of 20 to 30 seconds. He showed us how to create weird light tricks with the flashlight on the bloom but moving it around during the time the shutter is open. 

After spending a while there Mark had us move on down the path to the river where he had us set up our cameras pointed down the path and across the river to the bridge further down.  He had people take their flashlights down to the bridge and wait for a signal.  They would wave their lit flashlights back and forth. We with the camers set our sites on the bridge with a 30 second delay on the shutter.  At the signal we pushed the plunger on the camera and stood back to wait.  What we got was a lovely sepia type picture with a streak of white along the top of the bridge.  Cool!  Mark Then had the flashlight people use a lit sparkler and we did it again.  Another interesting shot.  We were not finished yet.  Mark then had us line our cameras up along the path beside the river. He had his volunteers light up a sparkler again and space themselves out along the path so that they were in the frame of our cameras.  We set the shutter speed again and waited for the signal.  At the signal we pushed the plunger.  The volunteers all made a letter of the alphabet that spelled out the word PAUL for the new head of Horticulture at the TBG Paul Zammit.  It was "Way cool"!

The last trick we learned before the evening ended was even more eerie.   The camera people lined their cameras up so that we pointed to the stairs.  Mark had Jennifer stand by the bottom stair.  We waited for the signal to push the plunger.  When the signal came Mark went behind Jennifer with his flashlight and drew the outline of her body.  Jennifer was cast in an eerie glow like an alien or maybe an angel.  It was magical.  What fun!!!!

You can find more pictures on Mark's blog at http;//truszphoto.blogspot.com