Light Trail Photography #5: Gorgeous Sunset And A Splash Of Color

My close friend and fellow photographer/explorer mikeheinhold (Instagram) messaged me saying that he had an idea for light trails. I geared up and was out the door an hour later lol. He wanted to go to a place called Sam Lawrence Park, a place that I usually shy away from for photo's. Not because of difficulty or anything like that, but rather because it is way over done. We are extremely lucky to live in such a beautiful city (Hamilton Ont.) but there are spots like this park that everyone and their mothers have taken photo's at. I call them normie pics, but was willing to try it out. I wasn't doing anything anyway.

The park is located on the edge of the Niagara escarpment that runs through the city, and offers a fantastic view of the downtown core. When we arrived, the sun was just starting to set and rather then shooting the skyline I aimed west to capture the beautiful color display in the sky.

After the sun set, we left the park and went to an access road that comes up the escarpment. Mike set up further down to try and get light trails coming around a bend as the cars came up and down the road. I set up at the top. At this flower bed, hoping it would add more color to the shot and I was very happy with it outcome!

After taking a few more shots, we went back downtown. Being a Saturday night, traffic and foot traffic was higher then usual. So why not try something that we have been trying to get for a while. A portrait with both light trails and motion blur from people walking.

That was the best one we got, it is a vast improvement from previous tries but still not good enough for my liking. There was still not enough foot traffic to get the look that I want, but I will not give up until it has been achieved. Stayed tuned for our future attempts and adventures!

If any photographers out there have any advice on how that can be achieved, let me know if the comments.