Travis Butler

This is the spire/antenna on top of the Empire State Building in 2000, taken when I was in town for a conference. I love the coloring and exposure, the brightly-lit spire against the deep blue (but not black!) sky. Unfortunately, while the camera I took it with had wonderful low-light performance - one of the best I've ever used in that respect - it was also a 1999-model camera, which means the resolution is so low that I can't ever print it without lots of obvious jagginess and pixellation. I'd love to be able to re-take the photo with a better camera... but now that I no longer work for the company that sent me there, the chances of going back to NYC are low, and getting that exact combination of lighting is unlikely even if I do make it back.

But if duplicating that photo is unlikely, this one is impossible:



This is looking out over the southern tip of Manhattan. Notice the pattern of lights sticking up over the skyline in the upper-right corner? Yeah.