Good Morning Atlanta

Last week I provided technical assistance of all kinds for our PR group during a symposium held downtown. I stayed at the Omni hotel at CNN Center, and I got to see downtown Atlanta from a different viewpoint, namely the 13th floor of the north tower of the Omni hotel. I'm sure the view was better higher up for birds eye stuff, but I think that given the distance from the Omni to my old work at the Georgia Pacfic building (3rd tallest in this shot), it worked out perfectly for perspective. I wasn't even going to take a skyline shot because I thought it was pretty cliche. But a few thoughts occured to me on Saturday morning when I saw this outside my window at 7:30am. First, the Atlanta skyline is impossible to correctly characterize because all the vantage points in and around Atlanta vastly change the composition of buildings. (I'll contribute this problem beause of the 3 main areas of skyscrapers in ATL downtown. Peachtree Center, North Ave, and Midtown). Second, most of the views I like include the places I've been to, which coincidentlally are the 4 main buildings grouped together in this shot. Last, I only like skylines where the sun/sky gradient does something special to the buildings.

So what we have here is my personal favorite view of the buildings that comprise Peachtree Center, with a little bit of Centennial Park/GSU in the foreground. I forgot the Omni even existed because it was underwent construction during my time at Georgia-Pacific, and it was just a mass of girders and cranes when I had a view from the 12th floor of GP. It was completed while I was on the near windowless 5th floor my last year at GP, so I never really took a good look at it. What I like best about the shot is the color transition. What it tells me is that between the cool dark blues of night and the red hot heat of day, there's a warm peach flavor to seperate the two.., well at least in Georgia.

(shot from my room at the Omni, through my window. Remember kids, turn off the lights in your room, and try to eliminate all reflections by putting yourself and your camera between the drapes and the glass. If you don't have a fast lens like I did in this case, you'll need a tripod for best results (or a lens with Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction/Anti-Shake).