The problem was, the vast majority of photographers in the field that night approached the shots just as they would any typical nightscape – exposing for, and getting full detail out of, the primary subjects (mostly buildings in this case).  This means long exposures that end up taking in about as much light as one would take in the daytime, which is fantastic if you want to produce a pretty picture of say the Coliseum at night:

http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/earthhour_03_30/col_off.jpg

Notice, however, that this photo above gives absolutely no impression that the lights are actually off. At first glance, the building is so well-illuminated that if it weren’t for the dark night sky, you really wouldn’t be able to tell this from a daytime photo.

Photographers make similar mistakes with long-exposure night scenes all the time.  If you want to create a pretty picture, alright, make sure your exposure is correct. But if you actually want to portray a scene as dark and taken during nighttime, you need to expose below the ideal exposure to get the photo to actually look, well, dark.  In Earth Day’s case, the proper thing to do would have been to make sure your before and after photos are taken at the EXACT SAME EXPOSURE, metering be damned.

Fortunately some of the pj’s that day got it right, and the Boston Globe has compiled them nicely onto a page that includes click-transitions back and forth between the before and after pictures (though there are still a few bad examples included):

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html

Good examples of what I’m talking about: Photo 2, Photo 8, Photo 10, Photo 11, Photos 14, 15, 16, 17

Bad examples of what you should NOT do (how quickly are you able to discern which is the “lights on” and which is the “lights off” image?): Photo 1, Photo 3, Photo 6, Photo 12

That last Election post is coming… for now here’s a quick link to a slideshow I worked on over the long and lonely Valentine’s weekend, documenting the Hackathon competition, which is an all-night coding marathon that EECS participate in instead of Valentine’s Day.

http://www.dailycal.org/article/104399/for_the_love_of_code

The Academy of Sciences

Though it’s old news by now, the California Academy of Sciences recently reopened after a nearly 5-year reconstruction.  I was there for opening day of the new building on Saturday, 2008 September 27.

You can find the full gallery of photos here: Gallery Link

I was expecting a long line, and sure enough when I got off the #5 Muni at the northern edge of Golden Gate Park (around 10:30am) there was a throng of people stretching way past around the corner.  That’s okay I thought, I’ll just walk to the end…

Halfway through the line

But the line kept going.  And going…

Three-quarters through the lline

After about 15 minutes of briskly-paced walking I finally reached the end…

End in sight

The line was arduously long.  About an hour and a half in (having moved just a couple hundred feet), a man from the Academy came out and passed out some candy bars for rations.

Man passing out candy bars - he said it'd only be about a two hour wait

I passed by a few musicians who had taken to perform alongside the line during the wait.  A young boy was playing violin about halfway through, and an older man played a didgeridoo/oboe/bassoon not too far past that:

Boy playing violin

Man in tunnel with didgeridoo/oboe/bassoon

I had a lot of time in line so I was snapping photos of just about everything.

Tree alongside the line

The line did move slow, but I guess it wasn't really seahorse slow

 After what seemed like an eternity, I did eventually get to the front.

After 5 hours, I finally got to the front

By this time the Academy was over-capacity, and they were giving out rainchecks to come back to the Academy later on in the day.  So for the time being I settled for this picture in front of the entrance.

I asked a stranger with a D200 to take the photo. He focused on the building in the background. Nikonians...

Here’s a map of the line I stood in.  It ended up being exactly a mile long, and took 5 hours to get through all of it.

Map of the Academy of Sciences Opening Day line

The ticket I got was for a 7:00pm entrance, and it was 3:30pm, so I had about 3 and a half hours to kill.  They had some art performances and booths set up on the old Music Concourse, so I decided to take a look around.

Two children get boosted up to get a better view of the performances at the Music Concourse

Ballet dancers from the San Francisco Ballet school

More from the ballet performance

Children got to play with a tortoise and other animals out on the Music Concourse

The Academy's awning has photovoltaic cells installed at the top to help power the building with solar energy

The Academy also featured a "living roof"

Top of the de Young Museum across the concourse

Inside the de Young entrance

I didn’t go into the de Young museum, but there was a Chihuly exhibit on display and one of the pieces was outside at the entrance:

Chihuly piece outside of the de Young in daytime

I took a short walk up north to grab a bite to eat (ended up eating a sandwich at a cafe… eh).  By the time I got back it was 6:30, and they were letting anyone with a ticket in (which makes me wonder how much earlier I could have gotten in…).  So after 8 long hours, I was finally in the Academy of Sciences.  Here’s just a sample of some of the pictures – you can find the full set of photos on my gallery.

The Albino Alligator

 I didn’t actually get to the rainforest – byt the time I had gotten around to it they had closed the line.  So it’s on my to-do list for the next visit.

The Indoor Rainforest

 I disappointing area of the academy was the new aquarium.  Those who ever visited the old Academy probably remember the huge multi-story spiraling aquairum.  There’s nothing of the same scale at the new academy – instead there are many smaller tanks which probably makes things easier to manage and maintain.

The Aquarium

Jellyfish!

Frogs!

Have no fear San Francisco - the Academy has got Godzilla secure and locked up. (I think it's actually a gila monster)

Jurassic Park, anyone?

The Pendulum Clock

An inappropriate Irwin joke here

 I spent just about 2 and a half hours there (the Acadmy closed at 9pm), and I really didn’t even get a chance to explore probably the two biggest attractions – the Indoor Rainforest and the Planetarium.  I suppose I’ll have to head there again for another trip someday.

One last look at the Chihuly piece - it doesn't actually change colors, I just biased my white balance heavily