City Skylines

I have not taken a lot of city skyline pictures. Not because I don’t like them but because a clear view of a city can be difficult to find. I have seen Philadelphia from the Southwest and took what I thought would make a wonderful picture from a vantage point I had never seen, only to discover that too much surrounding noise was in the way of the miniscule recognizable peaks of downtown. You have to be close, almost within the city. Of course this presents the problem of looking up at everything you want in the picture and having other buildings in the way. I thought at one point maybe I could get a picture looking out of one of the high rise buildings which put me at the approximate altitude, and I could get a nice picture of the building next to me, but that was hardly a skyline. Of course the other problem being inside a building is shooting through the windows. Reflections appear everywhere in your pictures. It’s very distracting to see your camera faintly superimposed over what you thought would be a stunning photo. If anyone knows Philly then perhaps you might be thinking that a trip to the top of the William Penn statue on top of City Hall would do the trick, but to make a cityscape and not have Mr. Penn in it wouldn’t be very Philadelphian. There are (obviously) a few places to get a decent picture. I don’t recommend this one, but it worked. I pulled over on the section of highway where I-95 South turns into I-676 West. By the way, no photographers were harmed in the taking of this image.

Nikon D4 Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 65mm f/9 ISO 200 5 image HDR