This is a picture I shot a few years ago to test a new digital camera. It's important to note that every photographer in Charleston, WV has taken a version of this picture at one time or another. It's a very famous scene in our town. While I've never heard any particular photographer take credit for this scene, I've heard lots of people attribute the scene to one photographer or another as if that photographer were the first to do it. Just for the record, Bill Tiernan (who works for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk) was the first to publish such a shot way back in the 70s when he worked for the Charleston Daily Mail. The shot is taken from the top of the municipal parking garage at the corner of Virgina and Dickinson Streets. Very soon after that garage was finished, a black&white version of this shot appeared in the Daily Mail. The photo stunned a lot of people. How could this be Charleston? It looks like some European city. My friend and fellow photographer Steve Payne used to joke that we should go up on the garage and paint "stand here for photo" on the pavement, but as you move left and right the relationships of the buildings change and there is more than one spot that is good.
