The Orion constellation overlooks the Michigan Central Train Station as it arches across an early morning sky in Detroit while a low lying fog amplifies the luminescence from nearby street lights providing an eerie glow to the vacant giant. I recall this chilly November night with clairvoyance. I had fallen ill with a cold due to the recent change in weather and had dealt with a bit of hesitation before I was able to force myself to suit up and leave the house when the fog rolled in. In the end this turned out to be a very productive run but it was not without its discomforts. This photo in particular, the last one I took that night, turned out to be quite difficult. I was trying to capture around a 20 second exposure, however it was just after 2 am and all of the bars were emptying out, causing light streaks as cars passed in front of me. Further more, I was standing in the middle of a street, wearing mostly black, in a dense fog, so I routinely had to retreat to the sidewalk with my camera mid-exposure when cars approached me. When I was finally able to overcome the timing of it all, I reviewed the photo to realize that I had mis-aligned my composition when moving myself and the camera in and out of the street! I had failed to notice because my viewfinder was nearly pitch black. Eventually, there was enough of a break in the traffic for me to compose and expose the image correctly, at which point I called it a night. Many of my photos that convey this type of stillness come quite naturally, and it is just a matter of picking the best of the few that I take; not the case with this image. This was the *only* successful capture I managed of this scene.

   

Author

Nicolas Boileau

Albums

• Fog
• Michigan Central Train Station - Detroit