How to Photograph Vancouver at Night

There have been almost 200 weekly photo roundups published on Miss604.com, over 46,000 photos shared with the Miss604 Flickr Pool, and over 11,000 photos shared with the #Photos604 tag Instagram. Residents and visitors alike love to capture our city and celebrate its poignant street scenes, beautiful landscapes, and memorable landmarks.

I enlisted talented local photographer Clayton Perry to help me share some tips for capturing some of the most popular types of photos we see of our fair city. This is the second post in a three-part “How to Photograph Vancouver” series sponsored by London Drugs.

How to Photograph Vancouver at Night

Where was this photo taken?
Granville Street outside the Roxy Nightclub.

What is the best time of day for a shot like this?
The best time of the day for a shot like this is early evening when the streets have lots of action and cars zooming by as well as all the lights from the businesses on the street are on full.

Is any extra equipment needed?
To get a photo like this you definitely want to use a tripod and a shutter release cord. This will ensure you can leave your shutter open for an amount of time that gives your image the “light stream effect”.

What is your top tip for getting this image? 
Be sure to have a shutter release cord (or remote control) – eliminating any shake in your camera.

About The Photographer

Vancouver-based photographer Clayton Perry was born on Vancouver Island and moved to the lower mainland in the late 1960s. He spent most of his childhood summers either in Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, Lake Okanagan while vacationing in Penticton, Victoria BC or his hometown of Richmond, British Columbia. He developed his skills around BC slowly developing a massive database consisting of over 45,000 images on Flickr alone. His passion lies in taking landscape and city images. Follow Clayton on Facebook and Twitter for more of his photography.