On a beautiful September evening I ventured out to find a beautiful spot to photograph the Minneapolis skyline while the sun faded behind the horizon. City lights began to illuminate the landscape as day turned to night bringing different moods during this interesting transition. This nighttime image is probably my favorite of the day as the city is surrounded by the blue, evening sky reflecting off of the river below both highlighting the lit up buildings while reflecting the last of the sunlight reflecting from the glass of the buildings.

My images from the night are in reverse order in this situation going from night, to sunset, to daylight only because the top photo is the one I liked most and still wanted some chronological order in the post. This next picture is just after sunset showing the colorful clouds behind a city yet to begin lighting up for the night. All of these stages of a transforming city where taken so they could be used as panoramic shots to display the full skyline of Minneapolis. The sunset image above is one photo of a part of the full panoramic picture which can be combined with the rest of the photographs from that time of the night. They can be added together to create a scene such as in the image below.

Once the sun had set and lights brightened up the city against the night sky, a quick trip away from these city lights brought out a very different scene – a star filled sky. Seeing the Milkyway appear among the stars always amazes me and makes me pause from a days activities comtemplating the universe and my place in it. It seems to reduce the importance of whatever issues I may be experiencing which ends up having a calming effect on me. A nice way to end a beautiful summer night.