Last week, I got to spend a few days in Chicago. And of course, I brought my film camera gear with me.

The hotel we stayed at had a very sweet view, so before going to bed to take a well deserved nap (we had a very early call to catch the first train of the day) I set up my camera and left it taking a 40-minute long exposure. Lazy photography! As you can see, it was a "fail".

Long exposures at sunrise or sunset times are very tricky

I should've known, but I didn't see this coming then. Taking long exposures at sunrise and sunset times is very tricky: the light constantly changes and it's hard to predict what is going to happen if you don't know the place.

In this case, I knew the Sun was still rising but I wasn't anticipating it to directly hit the building in front of me. This created a harsh reflection that I wasn't looking for.

Lesson learned for the next time.

By the way, there's no better way to wake you up than leaving a long exposure and having to get up to stop it.