Pavement, Water, Lamplight

It was well after sundown when I wandered through this parking lot after an afternoon of taking pictures. The day had been unusually warm for a prairie Spring, and puddles of urban snow-melt sat stagnant, not yet carried away by the dry breeze.

I liked the tone of the sky reflected in this puddle, and the pink cast that the dying sunset draped over everything. I composed the photograph to make the puddle look like a great lake, clipping the corner of the frame to suggest a world covered in water. The streetlamp, as so often happens in the night-time city, understudies the absent sun.

This photograph took over a minute to expose. As I waited, I listened to the city hum around me, felt the vague warmth in the air take a chill, and watched the streetlights, sensing the dark, wink on one by one like huge, improbable stars.