Capturing photographs of the Louisiana State Capitol building was not an easy task. I had one evening in Baton Rouge to take pictures of the building's exterior. When I first arrived, the stairs in front of the Capitol's entrance were crowded with people. A group of about 40 elderly women were exercising by walking up and down the stairs. After about 20 minutes, they finally tired and I was able to take a few images.

Later, I prepared for a night picture of the building. I prefer to capture the night images before the sky gets too dark. At twilight, the sky takes on that deep blue color which I prefer over the jet black sky. Just as the color in the sky was about where I wanted it to be, a spotlight at the top of the tower lit up. I couldn't believe that it was positioned directly at me (and my camera lens)!

At first, I tried moving further away in hopes that maybe the light wouldn't appear to be as bright. That didn't work. My only remaining choice was to go with the flow. So, I selected a very narrow aperture (f/14)--a much higher f/stop than what's required for the depth of field in this image. This narrow f/stop promotes the scattering of the light. It helps create a star-like burst of light.

Here is the resulting image:

Louisiana State CapitolLouisiana State Capitol building at 900 N 3rd Street in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on January 12, 2014