Life In The City

This is what I call a representational photography. I made it in one city, but it could be in any downtown. It’s a symbol. An icon. A placeholder.

This is a great example of photographer’s luck. Finding a location where I could make straight on image at the most wonderful time of day is not really about planning. It’s about finding. Oh sure, I planned to make a picture like this, but I had no idea where I’d find it.

The first step was finding the location and finding the angle. That wasn’t easy. It took hours of poking around. Keep in mind, not only do you have find the building, but it has to facing in the right direction. Once I found it I had to find the shooting platform. That was actually easier than I thought it would be. Almost directly across from it is a parking garage. For five dollars I had what I needed. It cost more than that. Fifteen dollars.

Fifteen dollars because I went back three times because the light didn’t happen the first two. And, you can’t wait for the light to be right before entering the garage. You can’t position yourself quickly enough.

Using parking garages to gain height is an old school trick. Today, you might use a drone. But, in an urban environment, you might be in a no fly zone or need a permit. That takes much more planning than what I did.

I once had a policeman on patrol ask me what I was doing. So, I showed him by taking a picture and showing it to him the camera’s monitor. His response? “That’s pretty cool. Stay safe.”

I could discuss photographer’s safety, but that’s a complicated issue and best served by an individual post.

Oh, I just discovered that WordPress has a rudimentary form of spell check now. Wow. AI comes to Storyteller.

Indeed.