Halflife Experiments of Nairobi's Skyline

It's been months since I took to a rooftop to shoot Nairobi's skyline, so when I got a chance to do some shooting in August, I jumped on the opportunity with both feet.

It all started with an assignment to make architectural shots of the UAP Old Mutual Tower in Upperhill, something we'd been planning since the pre-covid months. Since the exercise was to take a few days to complete, I set aside some sunrise and sunset time blocs to visit to the rooftop for shots of the city.

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Here's a couple of exteriors of the UAP Tower ...

... and a couple of interiors as well.

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First off, the obligatory [Sunday] sunrise shot.

The sunrise views to the Nairobi CBD were interrupted by billowing smoke around the city, probably from some folks burning the week's piles of trash.

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Next up, some close ups of the various iconic structures that define our city, both old and new.

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The evening light allowed the making of silhouettes. From a higher elevation, one is able to better appreciate the morphing landscape of Ngong Road and Kilimani.

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I had two setups for this session.

The above shots were made with a telephoto lens [first time to use it, and I loved it!] while the shots below were on the 85mm, all stitched panoramas.

I shot through the transitions-in-time to get the best of the available light conditions.

Halflife Composite base image - Day

Halflife Composite base image - Dusk

Halflife Composite base image - Twilight

Halflife Composite base image - Night

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Then finally, on to what this shoot was all about. The idea was to create Halflife composites, with the added complexity of panorama stitching, all the while praying that everything lines up perfectly every single time or at least come close enough.

Halflife Day-to-Night [1]

Halflife Day-to-Night [2]

Halflife Night-to-Day [1]

Halflife Night-to-Day [2]

I'm glad it all came together, with decent results. Below is my favorite composite from the set a.k.a. I'm making a print from this.

That's a wrap, for now.

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See you soon!