Tampa Skyline at Midnight.
Todays #frifotos theme is “Night”
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One day whilst driving around, before the massive rise in fuel costs and worrying about saving every drop of fuel I had, I was thinking about life and where it had taken me so far, where it may take me from that point forward, and making guesses/taking bets with myself on where I would succeed and where I would struggle. I had a lot of changes taking place with jobs, I had just started teaching the MSF Motorcycle Classes at Hillsborough Community College and that was extremely busy!
As a passenger I had a Canon 40D, and its attached 28-135 kit lens that was supposed to be borrowed by a fellow photographer as a backup for an engagement shoot. I couldn’t find the body cap, so I kept the cheapest of my lenses attached as a sealer, Bryce, the photographer and good friend of mine ended up in the hospital that day with a broken shoulder, he fell off his ladder while cleaning gutters.
Traveling on the Crosstown Expressway about 65mph windows down blasting Tech N9ne’s Albums, I was nearing the Davis Island exit and had glanced out my Drivers side window and saw all buildings except for the Suntrust building were lit in some way and the sky was a deep dark blue… Not your normal black for near midnight sky, but dark blue. I quickly made the decision to take the exit, steering in at the last possible second. For being a big heavy truck, my 05 Sierra just glides right over.
“Tampa General” I thought to myself as the best place to capture this shot. I parked at 1 Davis Medical Plaza grabbed the 40D and the tripod I always keep and walked out to the back side of the hospital at first thinking the rooftop of the new parking garage would be my ideal spot, but I had this feeling of keep walking. I ended up just to the east of the Helicopter landing pads, behind the hospitals rehabilitation center. Staring at the setting for a good 10 minutes at different angles I made myself a mental map. I found a white stone which allowed me to make my marks on the wall for my aligning and setup. After waiting for a boat to pass, and a helicopter to take off, I metered, adjusted my shutter speed to “bulb” and aperture small f/20, ISO at 100, plugged in the intervalometer and held the button for about 20 seconds.
It was good, but wasn’t “IT”. The horizon was “pelfed” so I adjusted the tripod to level things out, then as the clock hit midnight on the dot, the lights to the Regions Bank buildings roof line went out…. “Ooooo!!” was my thought, so I re-adjusted exposure and with another push of the button, I held for 36 seconds.
The resulting photo has been my most sold, and most requested photo to date. The owner of the company I work at has one hanging in his office, I see it daily and smile with pride. There are three local high schools with this photo proudly displayed in their main offices, a few of my friends have a print with a few more requesting it and there are others who have this photo. While it looks great printed, I’ll one day have it printed on Metallic paper to let the colors pop more!
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There are 3 overall “adjustements” to this picture, all of which are very minor.
-a. I removed a large box truck that was stalled in front of the big round tower (Beer Can Tower/Rivergate Tower)
-b. I removed a small boat that was tied to the convention center at the right of the photo
-c. A tiny white balance adjustment.
I have been told by many that they have never seen a shot of downtown Tampa that is as colorful and crisp as the one I made, and I can’t help but agree.
