On my way from Chicago to Minneapolis, I stopped for a short while in Madison, Wisconsin to visit the Overture Center for Performing Arts. The Madison Public Library is located across the street from the theater, so I went inside for a few minutes to see if anything might catch my eye for a potential photograph.

There's a terrace on the upper floor of the library with a view of downtown Madison. A few things attracted my eye to this scene--the reflection on the tile floor, the sky and the positioning of the person sitting in the corner facing the skyline.

From a photography perspective, a few considerations immediately came to mind:

• There are a lot of strong lines in the frame. I made sure to square the camera so that the lines are perfectly straight.
• I wanted to position the man using the "Rule of Thirds" for a stronger composition. This was more challenging than it appears because I was tempted to include a lot more of the skyline to the man's left--but there was another distracting element (a loose chair) just left of the frame. So, I positioned the man to the left and featured more of the skyline to his right.
• When I first viewed the image through the lens, I was standing. From a standing position, there is no spacing between the buildings and the ceiling. By lowering my perspective (sitting on the floor), I was able to create that spacing--which I think is important to the composition.
• I wanted to retain the details in the clouds, the blue color in the sky and the details in the pattern of the ceiling. So, I chose to bracket the exposures by shooting five frames at one stop apart. Of course, this required the use of a tripod--which I almost always carry with me. The risk in shooting multiple exposures is that the man might move between shots. However, if the man had moved a little during the exposures, that can usually be handled easily by selecting a high setting to reduce any ghosting while blending the images through Lightroom's HDR function.
• I also worked very quickly. Scenes like this can suddenly change--especially when there's a subject in the frame who might be curious about why the shutter is clicking so rapidly in his direction!

In the end, I like the finished image. It's one of those images that you can't plan for. It's an image that you might happen to come across if you stay open to some possibilities and have your camera available and ready to go.

Downtown viewView of downtown from the top floor of the Madison Public Library at 201 W Mifflin Street in Madison, Wisconsin on November 19, 2015