More Images from the Great Lakes Freighter

By Tom Paiva on

In this post, I have added a few more night shots from the freighter voyage, since I shot so prolifically at night in this once-in-a-lifetime situation.  These examples show relative movement. In this first image, as the ship goes through the lock at the rate of a slow walk, you can see slight movement in …

On a freighter on the Great Lakes

By Tom Paiva on

Last month, I had the great experience of traveling on a bulk freighter from Chicago to Quebec City.  We sailed through four of the five great lakes and went through about 20 locks.  The ship is 730 feet long and just fits into the 740 foot locks. As you can imagine, it gave me many …

Why Shoot at Night?

By Tom Paiva on

Recently, I traveled on a bulk freighter on the Great Lakes (images and story for a future blog) and flew to Chicago and stayed at an airport hotel the night before I boarded the ship.  I always look out the window and usually take a snapshot of the view whenever I stay at a hotel.  …

Urban Night Photography Workshop in Los Angeles

By Tom Paiva on

Last week Andy Frazer and I lead an Urban Night Photography workshop here in the Los Angeles area over three nights.  It was a small, intimate group with varied levels of photographic skills, which worked out great. Most of us live in urban locations, yet many people feel they have to go to a “scenic” …

Night Photography Juried Show

By Tom Paiva on

Recently, I juried a show of night photography for the Vermont Photo Space Gallery, in Essex Junction, VT.  There were some 440 entries, many quite strong. I have juried shows before, but not with this many images, and I was the only juror this time.  I was asked by several people what my criteria was …

Night Photography Books

By Tom Paiva on

This week, we are in the middle of our Urban Night Photography workshop here in Los Angeles and I wanted to mention three relatively new books (in no particular order) on night photography that are definitely worth adding to your photographic library. First is Lance Keimig’s book, “Night Photography–Finding Your Way in the Dark”, published …

Reflectons at Night

By Tom Paiva on

A couple of weeks ago, Aline Smithson’s blog, Lenscratch profiled thirteen night images of mine.  Aline purposely chose more unusual images from the group I sent her.  I received emails about a few of them and thought I would discuss two here that were asked about. Water Tanks This image, shot in northern California, is …

In the Alameda Corridor

By Tom Paiva on

A couple of years ago I was lucky to get access to shoot in the Alameda Corridor here in Los Angeles.  It is basically a trench with three sets of railroad tracks set about 40 foot below street level that runs 20 miles from the Ports of LA and Long Beach to the downtown rail …

Griffith Observatory

By Tom Paiva on

A couple of weeks ago while scouting LA locations for the upcoming photo workshop, I went up in the Hollywood Hills to the newly remodeled Griffith Observatory.  They have done a stunning job, as I had not been there since.  They managed to expand the museum by building down several stories while doing seismic retrofitting. …

Greetings, and shooting at Playa del Rey

By Tom Paiva on

After requests and much discussion and analyzing, I have decided to do a photography blog.  My goal is to concentrate on what I think is the best time to shoot–twilight and at night.  There are many other blogs out there on photography, and I will try to say something different to add to the mix. …