The Image: Sunset over Durban Harbour

I have lived in Durban and so have had the opportunity to photograph many parts of the city. On my last visit though, I was really looking forward to photographing something different or new. When I asked Durban based friend and fellow photog Chas Venter for some suggestions. he came up with a few, but it was one of his suggestions that I thought was going to be the coolest. The result is this panoramic image across the Durban Harbour. The view is from the top of the John Ross building overlooking the harbour. There is a revolving restuarant on top of the building, but then above that is a sky bar with a viewing deck, and this is the gem that Chas took me to!

The first problem is that there is a glass wall for safety, and with all the sea wind it is not nearly clear enough to photograph through the glass. I needed to get the camera higher than the glass. Luckily there are enough tables and chairs around the sky bar to put the tripod on and to make sure the camera is pointing over the glass. Not the safest setup!

The second problem was that the wind had really picked up and the tripod was not keeping the camera still enough. My lightweight travel tripod was absolutley useless, and the more sturdy tripod that I borrowed was also not quite keeping everything stable. The fact that the table was rickety didn’t help. In the end the camera bag was attached as a counterweight, which stabilised the rig enough to make this image, but nowhere near what was needed for any long exposure photography.

In did very little in Lightroom. The screenshot shows the global tweaks which were mainly to lighten the shadows and warm the sun in the image. I added clarity to bring the buildings out of the shadows further and show the difference in texture to the water, and then sharpened in Photoshop after cropping. I was dissappointed with the bland sky, frustrated with the wind, and really worried that I was not going to create the picture that I had in my mind (which was based on long exposures). In the end, when I am travelling and I know that I will not have the opportunity to go back in better conditions, I need to remind myself that I have to make the best of the conditions and produce an image that reflects what I saw.