A few months ago, I had the opportunity to visit the island of Penang in Malaysia. For those unfamiliar with it, Penang is located off the northwestern coast of western Malaysia. It actually has British colonial links with Adelaide, South Australia—Royal Navy officer Francis Light was a key figure in establishing a British settlement here in the late 1700s, and his son William Light was likewise a key figure in the founding of Adelaide in the mid-1800s.
From the balconies of the high-rise building where I was staying, I was able to shoot various cityscapes as the sun went down on my first day there. The soft, warm golden light of sunset soon gave way to gentle pinks, purples, and blues. The presence of some cloud formations added visual interest to the sky.
With the fading daylight, the city lights came into play, but I had to move on before night fell completely. If you have shot at sunset, you know that the lighting changes dramatically over a relatively short period of time, so you do need to ‘be there’ at just the right moment to catch the scenes you might have in mind. A little early, and the scene is perhaps a touch too much like an afternoon; a little too late, and the rich colours have become just a touch too dark.
I was shooting with my trusty Nikon D70S and Nikkor AF-S 18–70 mm f/3.5–4.5 kit; now more than 19 years old and still working. Although it made no difference in this case, I have always appreciated the quiet, gentle shutter release sound of this particular Nikon body; most professional DSLRs have a very loud and sharp shutter release sound, by comparison. In an era before high-end mirrorless cameras became affordable, the D70S was as unobtrusive a DSLR as one could get.