I recently visited Tokyo and spent a day at Disney Sea. This is one of the most photogenic places I’ve seen in a long time (I’ll be sharing some of the images I made on Photofocus in the coming weeks). The park (like many tourist destinations) has a no tripod rule. With a little but of pre-planning however, I knew to throw my GorillaPod into my bag.

There were lots of opportunities for nighttime photography, but I wanted to capture longer exposures like this image.

Nighttime-Carousel-by-Richard-Harrington---Downloaded-from-500px_jpg
18 | ISO 100 | 6 seconds

Here was my workflow…

  1. Find a flat surface to set the GorillaPod on. If not available, I could attach the camera to a railing.
  2. Set the camera to a smaller aperture to lengthen the exposure (I wanted a longer exposure to lengthen the light sources).
  3. Set the camera to a lower ISO to minimize noise (I could shoot lower since the camera was stable).
  4. Use the release timer on the camera. I set it for a two-second delay so I could push the button, then let the vibrations settle to get a sharper image.
  5. Post-process as needed to sharpen and color correct.
ƒ22 | ISO 400 | 60 Seconds | Developed with Intensify Pro
22 | ISO 400 | 60 Seconds | Developed with Intensify Pro

I was quite pleased with the resulting images and received no grief from any of the park staff while shooting.

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