Finding an interesting scene to capture for Snapshot Day proved more difficult than I had anticipated. Although there were dozens instances I could have captured throughout the day, none of those scenes were particularly striking to me. I did not want an image to display the grandeur of New York City and its bright lights, instead I sought to capture a photograph that would embody the rugged and gritty nature of the city. I found exactly what I had in mind while walking along the East River waterfront late in the evening.

I took a photograph of a stretch of the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive. I specifically chose this portion of the street because it shows the unpolished side of the city. The photograph is not beautiful in the traditional sense, as it portrays an aging, rusty overpass. However, the seemingly uninviting, industrial background in the image is very different from the dimly lit foreground. In the foreground of the image lies one of the many stone plazas of Stuyvesant Cove Park.  I believe the contrasting sides to the image make this photograph especially compelling.

I had certain compositional elements in mind when capturing this image. I did my best to follow the rule of thirds by placing points of interest, such as the closest street light, on the third lines. The main sources of light in this photo are the lights that line the street, which go all the way to the back of the photograph.  There is also an emphasis on lines in the image. The stone pillars of the plaza are parallel to the steel support beams of the overpass. Both sets of these sets of vertical lines help frame the street lights. The diagonal lines that are formed by the street and overpass are visually appealing because they provide a great sense of depth in the image. I was able to accomplish these diagonals by shooting at an angle. Overall I believe the photograph I took for Snapshot Day is compositionally sound.