Saturday, March 3, 2012

My Golden Hours

[Photo by KPA]

There is a time of the day in photography called the golden hour, or the magic hour:
In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is the first and last hour of sunlight during the day, when a specific photographic effect is achieved due to the quality of the light.
The above shot is nowhere close to this moment. It was taken around mid-day. I have taken many shots of the Mies van der Rohe building. Its strong, metal structure gives modernism a good and dignified name. Glowing in the background is the Royal Bank building, whose luminescence is accentuated by the dark towers in the foreground, making the moment a "golden hour" in its own right.

I photographed a brief moment a couple of days ago when the sun came out, shining through the clouds with mottled patterns on the Bay. I had had to buy new batteries in a hurry as my trusted and true camera switched off as my charged batteries (which I forgot to charge) gave out. This sun-dappled moment lasted barely fifteen minutes, but I captured it.

My batteries failed (or I failed my camera) once again (!) at the van der Rohe building, so I had to run in and buy batteries (much cheaper this time). I ran out, and the moment was still there. A construction scaffold was in the way (it's been there for ages), but I got around it and managed the shot above.

Two golden hours in two days. That must be some kind of record.