Taking shots of the city might not seem like much of a challenge, particularly when you travel in and out of one every day for work, but that’s why taking one that’s worth a second glance is harder than it might seem. Check out these 12 city-themed shots, as interpreted by you.
Click on each photo to see a bigger version.
Nicole Mendoza
I was wandering around aimlessly in the city when I looked up and saw this quirky art installation across the street. I was immediately taken by it and crossed the street to get a better look. As with most of Melbourne’s weird art scattered randomly across the city, I have no idea what it is – is it a bird? is it a moon? – but I thought it was beautiful anyway.
Taken on my Nokia N8, f/2.8, 1/179, ISO 100, 5.9mm
Steven Bull
When I saw this photo challenge come up and the wide scope it offered I had all intentions to get some sort of interesting & different “city” photo. But I’ve been moving house so time has been poor. I took this shot from the balcony of my old apartment on my last night there. A fantastic view, although I won’t miss getting blown away from these winter Sou-westers. Certainly not the best or sharpest night time city shot of Sydney you’ll see but it means something to me as it’s the aspect I’ve seen for the last 12 months or so, and the bright lights sum up city life for me after moving to Sydney from a more regional location. Shot with Canon 550d, Nifty 50 lens, 30 second exposure, aperture about 6.3.
Roger Stonehouse
Canberra isn’t much of city, but if you stand in the interchange at peak hour, it can seem like one. This is what a city is to me, the people, the suits, the rush, the movement.
5d1, 70-200mm @ 155mm, ISO 250 1/80 @ f 2.8.
Ben Foster
Canon 7D
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8
Velbon Sherpa Tripodf10
ISO100
Exp: 30,15,8,4secI took this at about 7:30pm at Birrarung Marr which is on the Yarra River next to Melbourne CBD. The shot is a HDR composed of 4 images which were combined using Photomatix.
Nico Liengme
This is a photo of Brisbane city at dusk, taken from Kangaroo point. One of those evenings where I was too broke to buy booze and decided to do something creative instead.
Shot was taken on a Canon 400D with a Bower 14mm f/2.8, at f/11, with 15 second exposure time.
Damian Desoto
So I happened to win an auction for a fisheye lens last week (not trying to copy Nick – I’ve had it on my wish list for many months) and I figured fisheye + long exposure = awesome. I tried to find a city intersection with 4 high rises, but it seems difficult in Melbourne.
I tried two intersections, this was the second. Only problem is the specks of rain starting to appear on the lens, which got much heavier after I packed up.D90 w/ Sigma 10mm Fisheye, f/22, 15s, ISO 200.
Peter Miller
Visiting my daughter’s new school I spied out the window the unmistakable vista of the City of Sydney 15 km away to the East. In the shot you can clearly see the Bridge, the MLC Centre and Centerpoint Tower. I grabbed this shot on the iPhone with the Hipstamatic app.
Michael Parente
This photo was taken while walking around aimlessly in Noosa, now that I’ve finished school for the term. It’s nothing special, but I liked the look of the line of thingeys.
Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 17-70mm
Focal Length: 70mm
Exposure time: 1/60 sec.
Aperture: f/4
Iso: 100
Matt Malt
This shot was taken yesterday in the Gotham City area of Movie World on the Gold Coast. The early morning sun was reflecting from the building opposite, lighting up this all glass facade. You can see the buildings reflection in the triangle of glass at the bottom of the photo.
The shot was taken on a Canon EOS 1000D, 1/80, F7.1, ISO 200.
Sandro Renda
Exposure Time – 8 sec
f/8
ISO Speed ISO 100
No Flash
Location – South Bank Streets Beach – Brisbane – Queensland.Recently the man made streets beach has been reopened due to flooding damage and maintenance.
Camera Kodak 6.1MP Schneider Lens Variogon 38-380mm
I took this picture while waiting for my brother’s girlfriend to finish up at a party in the city,
The lights changed color underwater so waiting for the right one to come out while holding the camera right on the surface of the water, had it not been a calm night then my camera would have been soaked in water. This has to be one of my better night photos in Brisbane.
Assaph Mehr
I took a similar shot to this on my phone one night (playing with a new camera app), and quite liked how it looked. I’ve been looking for an excuse to go and retry this shot with a proper camera, and this challenge was just the thing I needed. It’s the Sydney skyline taken from Balls Head Reserve (Waverton) across the harbour.
On the phone, the photo looks like a spray of light-dots on black, tracing the outline of the city. Quite nice, until you zoom in or transfer it to the computer where you see the general lack of sharpness. I tried to replicate the same effect with the DSLR, and around 1/2s exposure seemed to give similar results (or playing with contrast in post-processing). I did chose the 30s though for the competition, as I think it shows the Sydney harbour and skyline at it’s best.
As a side note to future night-time photographers, let me just point out that 30s exposure on the harbour results in a lot of boats and planes ruining the shot by leaving a streak of light across the frame. Had to take a few of them repeatedly….
Shot with Canon EOS 450D and a 18-135mm lens
Focal Length: 38
Exposure: 30s (tripod & remote)
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 200
B&W in-camera profile
Mitchell Swan
I have been wanting to take this shot for a while, the giz challenge was a good reason to get out there over the weekend. Featured here is Melbourne as its own planet.
Used a Canon 600D with the kit lens set at 18mm. To take the image I set the camera to A-DEP and took a series of vertical photos to make a 360 degree panorama. Some post processing in photoshop to bend it into a circle and used the clone brush / content aware fill to fix up the grass and sky.