Anxious to try out my new 14-24mm Nikkor, we visited Grand Central station. I love the “ghost travellers” caused by an extended time exposure so I invariably end up shooting a similar shot to this on each visit! For optimum quality I selected 200ASA (the lowest on the Nikon D700), and a small aperture which gave me a time exposure of 7 seconds. The key to such shots lies in the camera remaining rock steady during the exposure. A tripod is the ideal but this is not always practical (or allowed) in such public areas. fortunately there is a wide walled balcony overlooking the main concourse, so this was a great stable “mount” for the camera.
Grand Central Station - yes, and some HDR enhancement!
No sooner had I got the shot when a commotion broke out below me, with chanting demonstrators facing police. Unexpectedly I got the opportunity to try my hand at reportage! This taught me two valuable lessons – in order to get a meaningful image using a really wide lens, it is necessary to get the camera right in the thick of the action! That was probably a little foolhardy of me. Secondly, you need to know your camera well enough to instinctively adjust camera settings on the fly. I was shooting by available light, so racked the sensitivity to 1000ASA; however this was nowhere near fast enough, so by the time I realised this I had probably lost the best shot.
