Rooftop shots of the Raleigh skyline

I was given an opportunity to get some city skyline shots from a roof top a few days ago.  This is just a quick post to show some pictures I was able to get in Raleigh, NC.  The conditions were not so good, and the sunset was nothing special.  I had scouted the location several weeks ago, and I was surprised at how much the position of the sunset had changed in that amount of time.  Earlier it was setting right behind the largest buildings.  Now it was way off to the side of the frame.

To start, it was really windy.  I wasn’t able to set up in a protected spot, and I did not have enough weight to properly stabilize the tripod very well.  So I did the best I could, timing my shots between the gusts of wind to hope for a steady long exposure pic.  There were a lot of wasted shots.   I also had been watching really nice clouds all afternoon.  My hopes of getting an interesting sky were thwarted as the clouds mostly disappeared just before sunset.  If I can paraphrase one photographer…… ‘Good is what your mind imagines, great is what reality sometimes gives you.’  This night, reality just gave me some good shots.  I’ll have to try again and see if my luck improves.

Here are my favorites from the session.

This is an HDR picture.  Note how the fast moving clouds and the trees in the foreground are blurred.  This was accentuated in the combination of the 4 exposure bracketed  shots.