7 Things to try

Fine-art travel photographer Peter Stewart reveals how he took this incredible towering city shot

Our creative projects to try this month include taking a different view of a city, turning still images into an animated GIF and getting ultra-close to wildlife

The shapes and symmetry of these buildings is what fascinates me most. Taking an everyday structure that most people would ignore and finding a way to capture it in a new and unique way inspires me.

This shot was taken at a residential public housing complex in Tseung Kwan O, on the outskirts of Hong Kong. I followed my usual approach of scouting the area during the day to take note of various angles to try out, which helped me to find this view.

I then returned later that night, waiting until most residents were home to start photographing. Waiting around until later in the evening was well worth it, as there were then plenty of apartment lights shining through the windows, adding interest and colour to my final shot.

Carefully considering my camera position and angle is key to getting a striking composition and a good alignment in shots like this. To help with this, here I used a Nikon D810 fitted with a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 wide angle lens, mounted on a Gitzo Traveler tripod. I set the sensitivity to ISO 64 and the aperture to f/11, and used a remote cable release to take three exposures of 3 sec, 20 sec and 45 sec.

Later I manually blended the three exposures in Photoshop. Taking and blending these different exposures ensured that my finished shot had properly exposed highlights in the colourful building windows, as well as shadow detail in the night sky.