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Trap your victim in the frame

Earlier this year I spent an evening in The Hague, a city famous for its stylish trams and hosting our government. Taking street shots at night is not straight forward. You either have to pump up ISO to unbearable values, scare people by using a flash ... or simply bring a tripod. For this shot I did the latter.


To be honest, this evening's goal was to get boring architecture shots. I ended up deleted all of those and keeping just this one, turning my back to this famous scenery. After spotting this frame, I imaged how the passing trams would result in a nice 'swoosh' effect when using a long exposure. After setting up my tripod and camera, I took a test shot when the first tram passed: assumption confirmed.

After optimising the frame and focusing on the rail (manual), it was a matter of time for a victim to show up. A lady walked into the 'trap' and luckily she didn't move much during the exposure (for a good contrast in sharpness with the passing tram). E voila, the shot was done!

Only after getting home I noticed the 'William Klein' add for FOAM, a photography museum that's worth a visit. The horizontal lines of William's world famous shot nicely supplement to the rhythm in my photo. I don't mind that the advertisement is over exposed. In fact, it keeps focus on the main subject.

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