OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH!

On a trip to Berlin recently I had great plans to shoot the Brandenburg Gate at dusk. As luck would have it the weather was miserable all day, with a thunderstorm around teatime promising to bring a halt to all outdoor activity. And I was only there for one night!

The clouds were still thick and miserable as I set out on foot from the restaurant were we had dinner and the weather stayed like that all the way there. As I set up the tripod in front of the gate about 10 minutes before sunset a German photographer came up to me and told me I was wasting my time as there would be no 'blue moment' that night due to the heavy clouds. I told him to have faith, I only needed a little break in the clouds. He said it was hopeless because he knew what clouds were coming our way. Well it stayed that way until 40 minutes after sunset when the clouds started clearing! (It got much clearer about 20 minutes after this shot was taken but by that time the light from the sky was too low and the light inside the gate was blowing out).

Even though the sky was clearing I was very worried about the dark foreground. The street lights simply weren't coming up to strength the way that I had hoped. But as luck would have it a police car drove by in a slow arc in front of me just after I fired the shutter leaving it's headlights trails behind, pure chance! This simple accident added significant foreground interest and really helped show up the detail of the cobbled street.

Oh ye of little faith!