Swanson Building Murfreesboro

Last night we had one of the most spectacular sunsets that I’ve seen in Murfreesboro in a long time. And since I was at my studio on Main Street, I decided to make it a challenge and find a local landmark that would look good against such a magnificent sunset.

Just a block away from the studio is the tallest building in town, the Swanson Building, or the City Center (not sure which one is the official name). It’s a midget compared to some of the buildings in larger cities, but when you consider that the tallest building around it is roughly four stories high, this 20+ story building looks more like the Burj Khalifa.

I’ve been wanting to photograph the Swanson Building ever since I started publishing my previous blog, but I never felt that I had the right background, context, perspective, etc. However, last night, as I was looking at the clouds that were spread throughout the entire sky, I realized that I had the perfect background to do a unique photo of the building. So I camped my gear across the street, and waited for the sky to turn gray, then yellow, then bright pink. And it’s the pink that you are able to see in this photo.

Technical Stuff: shot with my Nikon D300 and Tokina 11-16mm on a tripod at f/8. Processed meticulously in Lightroom and Photoshop. Here’s another view of the sunset, from a different angle, and exposed mostly for the sky. Not much processing on this second photo, but still showcases the very cool sunset.