My own Twilight Saga

The idea behind a twilight shoot is to capture images between the time the sun sets and complete darkness. That way you can get a long exposure indoors, while sucking in the remaining light outside for a nice rich blue colour in the sky as well as the twinkling lights of the city.

So the other night I loaded up my car and headed towards Cypress Mountain at about 8:30 pm, to this beautiful penthouse suite with a 180 degree view of the city. Although it was built 20 years ago, it is a beauty, with floor to ceiling windows, a rooftop pool, and the most sophisticated lighting system I have ever seen in a home.

There were literally dozens of light switches for each room, all on dimmers, so I spent the majority of my time looking for the right switch and playing with the levels to get the lighting just right. Twilight doesn't last very long, so before it got dark I had to scope the place out completely, and figure out the shots I wanted to get during that half hour of golden time.

Once the sun sets behind the mountain it disappears quickly: it took about 10 minutes for the sunset to move from Point Grey to downtown.

Once the interior lights were dimmed and the sky became darker, the views were breathtaking, and changed every few minutes. I didn't get home until late that night, but I just had to download these images and check them out before I hit the sack. It took quite a while to select and process the images, but I was very happy with the result. Hopefully my client, Eric Christiansen, is too!