Hi my dear friends!

I decided to write this journal after my third visit to Saint Petersburg in this year. We all know about the problems that world economics faces nowadays and I don’t want to touch them here. However it turned out that the crisis influences night photography. One can say that night photography (as photography in general) is independent of the crisis – just take your camera and go taking pictures. In general he will be right. But there is one aspect of night photography dependent on economic situation of the country (region, city or whatever else) in which you take pictures – night illumination. The quality and amount of night illumination is probably the main force that makes you take your tripod and camera and go in the streets instead of staying at home in bed.

Traveling to different cities this year (especially to those where I was last year) I can say that the amount (and sometimes quality) of the night illumination is decreasing. In some cities (for example in Saint Petersburg) fewer buildings are illuminated nowadays (however I must say that the most important and beautiful historical landmarks have not lost their splendor at night). In other cities (for example in Beijing) not all buildings (even those that have great historical importance) are illuminated every day now (for example the Northern part of the Forbidden city is illuminated 3 or 4 days a week). There are cities where the illumination does not work all through the night (for example in Copenhagen and partly in Moscow, Minsk, and Beijing).

I can understand the reasons of this situation – night illumination costs a lot to governments and brings no income. There is a small part of the illumination organized by private companies but usually it is the illumination of their office buildings. And again it becomes too expansive for the companies.

The last but not least is the night events like different celebrations with fireworks or like festivals of light. The presence and magnificence of these performances depend on the amount of invested money. The difference with the simple illumination is that these performances gather tourists and it means bring some money. But if there is nothing to invest no performance will be held. I must say that I have not heard of cancellation of night shows of any kind yet (and hope won’t hear) but I heard of fewer investments.

Why am I writing all this? Well, first of all as a night photographer I want to thank governments of different cities where I have been for the still working illumination and for the organized shows (like Season of Light in Helsinki, Fireworks Festival in Moscow, several celebrations in Saint Petersburg and the coming Festival of Lights in Berlin). Without it my photos would have been impossible and the night view of the cities would have been sad. Secondly I just want to warn all night photographers. If you decided to go somewhere hunting for the splendid night photos it is a good idea to find out information about the illumination if it is possible (in Europe tourist information centers usually can give such information, or you can try to search Internet, for example in livejournals, or just ask your friends who live there or who have been there).

Good luck and take care!


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