Fire escape - mixed light sources

[IABoomer]

Fire Escape by IABoomerFlickr, on Flickr

Camera Nikon D5000
Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/1.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 1250

After dropping my in-laws off for an early morning flight, I took my camera downtown to walk around and do a little shooting during the pre-sunrise blue hour. I didn't think to bring a tripod, so everything I shot was handheld, hence the higher ISO to keep the shutter speed reasonable.

Things I like about this image:

Contrast between the warm lights on the fire escape and the cool street light
Pattern of the stairs
Angles of the lines through the frame

Things I think miss in this image:

I cut the corner of the railing off at the top
There might be too much sidewalk at the bottom

So, I ask the DPS community, what do you think? Are there other things about this that you like? Do you agree with my assessment about the weaknesses? If I were to torture myself and get up that early again, what would you suggest I do differently?

[Hill Country Hack]

Nice one!

I do agree on your stated weakness. Maybe try having bottom of frame right at the foot of the lamp in the right foreground.

Torture yourself? I'm up at 5:00 am every weekday for work. I force myself to sleep in until about 7:00 am on the weekends.

[Doug Sundseth]

I agree with your self-critique, but I'd add that I like the blue sky and the greenish-blue lights in the back building as a balance to the orange fire escape lights.

I think I'd try a few things on a reshoot:

Lower your PoV to get more sky and possibly an interesting composition of lights and angles.

Shoot landscape to pick up more of the back building and sky. (I'd aim upward a bit to lose some of the sidewalk and gain more space above the building.)

Move close to the bottom of the fire escape and shoot upward. The angles might be more interesting and the vanishing point effect might work, too.

No guarantees that any of that would work, but there you go.

[IABoomer]

Originally Posted by Hill Country Hack

Nice one!

I do agree on your stated weakness. Maybe try having bottom of frame right at the foot of the lamp in the right foreground.

Torture yourself? I'm up at 5:00 am every weekday for work. I force myself to sleep in until about 7:00 am on the weekends.

I think the crop works better. Please see the attached file. Sorry, but I'm just not a morning person.

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

I agree with your self-critique, but I'd add that I like the blue sky and the greenish-blue lights in the back building as a balance to the orange fire escape lights.

I think I'd try a few things on a reshoot:

Lower your PoV to get more sky and possibly an interesting composition of lights and angles.

Shoot landscape to pick up more of the back building and sky. (I'd aim upward a bit to lose some of the sidewalk and gain more space above the building.)

Move close to the bottom of the fire escape and shoot upward. The angles might be more interesting and the vanishing point effect might work, too.

No guarantees that any of that would work, but there you go.

The background building is the library, and I could easily do a set just of it. There's a couple other shots that have the library in them in my set Downtown Des Moines - a set on Flickr

Thank you both for looking and commenting.

[Donal]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

Lower your PoV to get more sky and possibly an interesting composition of lights and angles.

Also, if you lower your PoV it should reduce the width of the footpath on view as you will not be looking down on it as much.

I think the shapes created with the different colours are great.