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The Eldridge hotel is a historic landmark in Lawrence, and the interesting architecture has many appealing aspects. I was out before dawn on this morning, and was in the same block as the hotel. I noticed the warm glow of the interior lighting and the outside lamps, and was drawn to the entrance. I enjoy taking advantage of the various artificial lighting colors at this time of the day, and never attempt to correct or alter them. In fact, I consider the colors to be one of the interesting aspects of pre-dawn cityscape photography. Just as with astrophotography or photography of the aurora, the storage effect of either film or digital sensors accentuate color much more than the eye-brain system. The sidewalk and front of the hotel were bathed in a cold greenish cast due to a nearby mercury vapor streetlamp, and the warm incandescent lighting from the hotel created a striking contrast.

The camera positioning was a little difficult due to a number of issues. I was using my medium format camera which, unlike a view camera, has no perspective correction capabilities. To center the image on the front door, and to maintain the rectilinear perspective, the camera had to be leveled and positioned directly in line with the center of the door. There is a tree only about 12 or 15 feet away from the building that occupies almost the exact position that I needed. It certainly limited the distance that I could back away from the subject, and so to take in the desired width I had to use a shorter focal length lens than normal. Also, it was necessary to set up the tripod and camera such that the side of the lens was almost in contact with the trunk of the tree. There were some additional obstacles in the area, which even further restricted my movements. When I had finally made the image, I was glad to remove myself from the uncomfortable position.