I’m capturing pictures for many years now and I have to say, that for all those years, I’ve been a daytime photographer! Yes, I confess! A few night/evening images here and there but a very, very small portion of my overall pictures were taken at night. And let me tell you, I didn’t really have much interest for it … at the time.
Mostly because shooting during the day is very easy. Light is usually not a problem and the sites you want to photograph are almost always open. On the other hand, there are A LOT OF PEOPLE on popular sites and on the streets. That can cause a photographer a lot of headaches especially if you enjoy ‘’Human-Free’’ pictures.
Night photography solves, at least in part, the problem of having too many people in your pictures.

That’s exactly how I got pushed into night photography. I went to Dubrovnik not so long ago for vacation. Heading toward Old Town from the airport with the shuttle, we got dropped off at the ‘Ploče Gate’. To get to the bus station, which is on the other side of the old town, we decided to make our first contact with the city by simply passing through it and have a first glance. Wow! Wow! And Wow!

Two things struck me really hard within a few meters in the city. First, Old town Dubrovnik is beautiful, I mean REALLY beautiful. Second, there are A LOT of tourists there. Dubrovnik is a popular destination for travelers from all around the planet. I’m an experienced traveler/photographer myself and I know that in a lot of the cities I’ve visited over the years (Rome, Barcelona, Prague, Athens, to name a few) you just need to be patient. Most of the time, you’ll get your picture with less people in it … so patience is key but not applicable to Old Town Dubrovnik. In a split second, the decision was made to wake up at 4h30am to get the capture the pictures that I wanted. There was no way I would’ve been happy to bring back those ‘touristy’ pictures where you don’t really see the real beauty of the city. When I came home and looked at the pictures, I immediately saw the potential of this type of photography. And that’s how the night photography ball started to roll for me. From there, I decided to start my night photography journey by visiting my own city, Montreal which is such an amazing city. Night photography will definitely be integrated in my future trips around the world!