A Little Something I Took

This was taken on my Lumix FZ82D and is one of those pictures that wasn’t supposed to be as cool as it came out. I haven’t applied a single overlay, shifted the colour balance or enhanced brightness levels - It’s simply au naturel. I caught the blinking lights at the opportune time, instead of getting one of those dustbin worthy underexposed shots, the whole image sparkles and captures that euphoria. 

28/02/25. Post exam season. An event called Smoking on Buses at York’s Micklegate Social. My funniest memory of this night was the unexpected surge of millennials - after noticing advertisements around campus, we thought it might attract the ‘student bubble’, but in reality it was my second year friends and I amidst a group of age 30 plus 90s babies. The vibe of this place was ‘underground basement’, it felt like a cellar pulsating with the electrifying beat of UK House classics and lasers. You have to walk down a very deceiving winding staircase, and one of my not so fond memories was falling down; I’d already checked into the event and had gone upstairs to use the toilet with my friend. On the way back down, there was suddenly a massive queue of people who we confidently passed until I did the embarrassing act of missing a step and toppling from top to bottom, knocking people down like dominoes. The people responded well to my copious apologies, I think I was just the subject of laughter really, but luckily I was soon concealed by the smoky, beatnik bar-like venue, ‘they wouldn’t be able to spot me’ I told myself. This didn’t deter from a good night out though - there were glow sticks and ice pop giveaways, I think the glow stick in my friend’s mouth is a piece of mise en scene which really elevates the image’s charge. It’s almost as if the light rod itself mimics the sun, sending beams of light, pulsing yellow and electric blue against the viewer’s eyelids, in different directions. 

I think temperature is a striking element of this photo; the balance of warmth and cold. The right hand side of the background looks like a warmer territory - the lighting is responsible for bringing the energy, instead of the clammy mass of bodies usually typical of a nightlife scene, the red LEDs heat up the room. This is off balanced with the more arctic feel of the left hand side, a place where the sun doesn’t shine. It’s almost as if Milly is the borderline between a polar and tropical climate. 

If I had to match this picture with a song, I’d choose the opening of Paul Johnson’s Get Get Down - a real 90s club classic.