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“St. Louis Skyline at Sunset” |
The story behind the shot:
On Sunday my husband Mike and I had a day without the boys. The plan was to go school clothes shopping and just spend some time together. There were no particular plans for “spend some time together,” so I made sure to grab my camera and tripod on our way out the door.
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The setting sun made for great shadows. |
By mid afternoon, our shopping was finished, and we were checking movie times for the mall cinema. We just missed a movie by 10 minutes, so we scratched that idea. In the car, I googled “things to do in St. Louis” – here we had 7 hours to do something before we had to be home, and neither of us knew what to do.
Most things that came to mind either cost more money than we wanted to spend or were evening activities that wouldn’t be finished until late.
So, I talked Mike into just letting me take photos. Photography isn’t his “thing,” but he knows it is mine and agreed to drive me wherever I chose to go.
My first stop was the Laumeier Sculpture Park. There, we walked around the different sculptures, and I got some new photo letter shots. There were a few new sculptures in the park since we had last been there (about 9 years ago), the most interesting one to me being the large eyeball. But being the middle of the afternoon on a bright, sunshiney day, the harsh light just wasn’t the best for great photos of the sculptures.
After the park, we had a nice dinner, waiting for the light.
It’s all about the light…
The difference between a great photo and an amazing photo is the light. You can have an extraordinary composition, but if the light isn’t right, the photo is a dud.
So we waited…
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It was a beautiful evening for fishing on the Missouri River. |
…and waited…until the sun set, the sky turned blue, and the lights of the city came on.
The weather was pleasant, and no one bothered us. Being a Sunday evening, the Eads Bridge had low traffic, so shaking was minimal, except for every 10 minutes when the MetroLink rumbled through underneath us (at which times Mike would quickly step as far from the edge of the bridge as possible…just in case).
We observed the riverboat and helicopter tours along the river, the massive barges pushing their loads, and a few St. Louisans stroll past us and over the Mississippi River.
It was a fairly sweet evening.
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“Peeking Through” – I thought this one called for a vintage look. |