1910 - Solitude

This is an image I made yesterday, shortly after midnight. I used the Nikon 50/1.2 in an Underground station, not in the dimmest of candle lights, but definitely in what we generally consider “available light”.

Well, the image was taken at 1/200 s and ISO 200. Amazing, huh? A little later, having left the Underground and emerging on a nightly street lit by sodium vapor lights, I took another image at ISO 200 and 1/8s. It’s nothing to show here, but I had to stop down - in light that normally allows for ISO 1600 only.

Immediately after I took the image that you see here, a man dashed at me and, with American accent, agitatedly required to know what I was doing and why. “I’m taking photographs”, I said. He wanted to see, I showed them, and when he found nothing suspicious, he began to calm down.

He said he had thought I worked with the police and took images to collect evidence. I said “No, I consider myself an artist”, and so we began talking and exchanging conspiracy theories. He didn’t seem to fully trust me though, because when I asked where he came from, he only said “From everywhere”, and that I had a Russian accent (funny, but what do I know?) and probably two passports. That’s where I had to leave the train 🙂

The Song of the Day is “Solitude” from “The Great Summit” by Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Incredible music, but hear for yourself on YouTube.