I opted to create a new site for a new project, which may or may not get funded and may or may not get published. Nightscapes or landscapes at night started as a sideproject that I came up with while I was working on my doctoral thesis. I had grown weary of my main project and I wanted something to do something new. I knew it had to be something challenging, something that others have not done and/or are not willing to do.
To my knowledge, no one has focused on the linguistic or semiotic elements in the landscape at nighttime or, to be more specific, when it gets dark. To be clear, there are some articles, book chapters and books written on nightscapes, but none of them focus on what I am interested in, which is why I thought it would be worth investigating. There are many reasons for this the low number of existing studies.
I think the main reason for the lack of existing studies on nightscapes has to do with the difficulty involved in studies landscapes in the dark. Firstly, it is one thing to take photos or video in daylight and another thing to do that when it gets dark. It is not impossible but it is more demanding. It requires more expertise in photography and/or videography and the appropriate gear to get the job done. In my opinion, this is the hardest issue to overcome as you have to be quite invested in photography and/or videography to be able to do it in low light conditions. Secondly, working at nighttime is not for everyone. You have to be willing to work at night, which is not very appealing to people, especially if the weather conditions are far from ideal. This issue is fairly easy to overcome as you just need to be willing to do it. Thirdly, some areas are more dangerous or we think they are more dangerous after it gets dark. Daylight conditions provide a sense of security. This issue is also fairly easy to overcome. Working as a team will provide more security. Then again, the more people you need, the more they need to be willing to participate and have an actual role in the team. Something tells me that there are not many people interested in just carrying your tripod. Fourthly, doing something new, something that you are not familiar with, something that is challenging, inconvenient and possibly even dangerous in some circumstances is not exactly something that appeals to the many.
This is simply an introduction to this. I have briefly discussed these issues in an essay, three years ago, in a free-flowing manner, as I prefer, but I will expand on that in this blog. I will try to keep things neat and focus on specific topic each time. I hope to address many of the problems related to photography and videography, explaining things, step-by-step. An experienced photographer and/or videographer probably won’t benefit from it, but the less experienced individuals may benefit from such. I am not sure yet whether I will compile all that into a single post, editing it to include more and more, while also keeping it in order, so that it is easy to find what you might be interested in, or do it post by post. I will also try to cover existing studies in various fields or disciplines, to the extent they are relevant to my own project.