That was good ramen, I thought as we walked back from Hokkaido Santouka. I’ve been meaning to get some night shots of Toronto and this was a good opportunity. So I gripped my glass and walked along Dundas.

Street lights varied between a warm orange and a frigid white. The roads that led to Eaton Center glowed red and in the distance, I could see big blue panels of light. My rule for street photography is to capture the image and keep walking — unlike portraits where I check for focus.

I played around with the light settings. I found lower exposures make the lights and signs pop. The depth of field is what I really like about night photography — you open up the aperture and let light in, and get a nice depth of field.

The traffic lights and car headlights beautifully reflected off the road creating surreal pictures. It almost looked like a scene out of The Dark Knight. Experimenting with the reds and cyans, I could try to replicate movie-like images.

Another thing I learned about street photography is its out of your control. When shooting landscapes or portraits, I have so much control over the scene or object I capture. But I can’t move people around or stop construction or obstruct cars. It forces me to be more creative — I have to go out of my way to create meaningful or interesting photographs.