3:30 AM Run Into Town

My sleep pattern varies from time to time.  Sometimes I am amazed I slept till 6 and then others when I can't seem to sleep past 4.  Must be guilty conscious or heavy thoughts.  Let's just go with heavy thoughts.  I am presently in the earlier to bed earlier to rise phase.    So I decided that I needed to do something so I loaded up the tripod and camera and decided to take a few night shots at Vinoy.  The Leonid meteors showers peaked on November 18th, I think, but clouds and an unusual cold front dampened my enthusiasm.  So tonight nothing was happening, but still travelled into town one early morning to see what i could see.  

And what I found wasn't particular exciting except these two birds, huddled together facing a bracing breeze, just staring into the Bay.       

I think it is quite a nice shot.  These two guys, different species, finding a kind of kinship in a lonely vigil.  Nature tells us animals basically eat, sleep and breed, but these guys seem to have an otherworldliness to them.  Sentinels, watching for or maybe seeing what we cannot.   

The other shots weren't as nice as that, more mundane park vistas while pretty in their own way, don't actually have much to say.

I include this one simply to demonstrate the light pollution that exists in this area.  That yellow tint is all Tampa lighting.  

And speaking of lighting, I noticed the eternal flames at the Holocaust Museum were not all functioning.  I don't know how these things work, but I would have thought, simply as a testimonial kind of thing, that the directors would insure that these lights, above all else, remain lit.  The eternal flames in St. Pete aren't so eternal.  

Other possible subjects for picture taking in the early morning hours are somewhat chancy.  There is a contingent of homeless that make this area their own.  It is virtually impossible to walk the streets at this time of night without being approached and then with camera is inviting trouble.  It is best to approach street photography with a great deal of caution.

One school of thought is to compensate those you photograph with a buck or two.  Another school says anything in the public realm is, well, public.  It may be best to point the camera at night upwards.