On this day in 1902, Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the radioactive element radium.
The Glasshouse Hotel in Sligo, viewed from the Hyde Bridge. It's not long ago since this site was occupied by the Silver Swan Hotel, I remember the place very well. I was in Sligo last Monday evening for the Blue Hour, scouting for some locations for a low-light photo shoot. Must say, I found the job challenging. That said, the place is not without it's appeal and there are some very suitable spots. I didn't venture about too much but I'm guessing you might see some more of this building in the coming months.
Photo: Using a 10-20mm wide-angle lens on tripod, I approached the shot in my preferred 'landscape' format, vertical compositions rarely have appeal for me. I subsequently went for a square crop. The building barely squeezed into the frame, I'd have preferred to have more of the pier at the bottom. All part of the learning. Light was also fading fast, my advice if you're going to shoot here; do it with light in the sky, ask the manager to put on the lights in all the rooms and get the guests to wave their underpants out the windows - that would do it for me!
ISO 100. A single 13 second exposure @ f/8.
Tip; I'm often asked why I simply don't use the lens minimum aperture for this kind of shot. The answer is this; firstly, a lens rarely performs at it best using the smallest aperture and second, smaller apertures have a tendency to make unsightly flare anomalies about bright lights. I will usually experiment with various apertures to find a happy medium between broad depth of field and controlling lens flare anomalies.
