Arin Ahnell's Night Photography website

The Story Behind the Photos

I first became interested in photography near the end of the 90’s while I was finishing up high school. I started out shooting with my father’s early 80’s Nikon FG and with his help I quickly learned how to properly use the SLR. Soon after, I started pushing the envelope to create images one would normally never see with the naked eye.

I was fascinated from the beginning by night photography. I bought my first tripod and set out to capture brightly lit night scenes. The first results were less than appealing, and many of the photos I took simply did not work out. I finally decided to ditch the normal off the shelf negative film and began developing my own black and white photographs. Soon after I soon discovered several artists shooting exclusively on slide film, which made very high quality, bright, vibrant photographs, even at night.  I purchased a few rolls of the expensive film was astonished by the results. Vibrant beautiful colors came from each photo I snapped. The film made such an amazing difference, I ditched all the old stuff and jumped on as much slide film as I could find.

I was first introduced to Agtronic’s experimental night photography which lead me to began experimenting with all kinds of slide film, many of which were not to be used for outdoor lighting. Those films created some of my favorite photos, because they produced cool blue night colors.  Soon after experimenting with new films I attempted to push the envelope further once again. Many night photographers such as Lost America were using light painting techniques with theater gels to make night photos even more interesting. I began experimenting further with this technique, which I’ve continued to do to this day. As I progressed, I began shooting only under the light of a full moon. Since each photograph exposure was near 5 minutes, I’d only get a few shots in one evening. The whole process is very slow.

From the beginning, the goal was to make interesting photographs without needing computer programs to manipulate the photographs. That being said, most of the photographs on this site are absolutely real. They are real photos that have not been altered in any way on the computer. Everything strange in the photos happened on location, and is directly on the film. The photographs on the site that this applies to are all of the photographs with a White boarder around them.

Around 2005, after digital cameras began to catch up to the quality of film, I began shooting my night photography with a digital SLR. When shooting with a digital camera I shoot in a RAW format, which is essentially like a film negative. Before shooting, the operator of the camera has the ability to edit aspects of the shooting mode to simulate many of the different types of films that exist. Rather than do this in the camera, I do this through raw image editors after I shoot. Since these photos are different from the normal night photography I’ve shot on film and left unedited, I’ve placed a gray border around them.

Lastly, as of recent, I began experimenting more with a photo technique called High Dynamic Range or HDR. By combining several photographs of the same scene at different exposures together and editing the tone maps, I’m able to create stunning images. Since these photos are basically edited, I’ve included no boarder around the image.

I’ve considered Troy Pavia of Lost America to be one of my greatest influences. Please take a look at his Techniques page for more information on night photography.