Spirit of Detroit

As the sun set, more and more people showed up. Jefferson avenue became an impassable sea of chairs. Sitting on the curb with The Renaissance Center, camera, and tripod in front of me hoping that this is going to be the shot in my mind’s eye. But as soon as the fireworks started, I quickly realized it was not. The barge closest to the Renaissance Center was too far to frame the fireworks together. My first thought of to move to my left to close the gap between the Renaissance Center and the closest barge launching fireworks. But at street level, there were too many obstacles in the way. Trees, light poles and a bunch of junk to ruin the shot. With limited time, I tried to make the best of the situation. Try to relocate to another Detroit landmark and shoot from there. The closest landmark that came to mine was the Joe Louis fist in the middle of Woodward and Jefferson avenue. With the sea of people there that idea was not going to work.

Bummed out that my plans were quickly failing, I decided to pack up and head home. Walking west on Jefferson, weaving in and out of folks watching the fireworks, I pass by the Coleman Young building and turn onto Woodward. At the end of the Coleman Young building sits the Spirit of Detroit statute. I decide to walk behind the statue instead of in front and get in the way of people watching the fireworks. As I pass behind the spirit of Detroit, I turned one last time to view the scene before returning home empty handed and this is what I saw…

 

Done