Some photographs you stumble into. This one I went looking for. 

I'd seen that the Lowry Avenue Bridge was going to be lit in rainbow for Pride weekend, and I knew exactly what I wanted, not just the arch glowing in every color it has, but the whole thing again upside down in the Mississippi River. The reflection was the picture. The bridge was only half of it. 

So I packed up and headed down to the river with one frame in mind.

Waiting for the water 

Here's the thing nobody tells you about reflection shots: the bridge will do its part. It's the river you have to negotiate with. 

When I got to my spot along the bank, the water had just enough movement to scatter the colors into a soft, broken mess. Beautiful in its own way, but not what I came for. To get the colors to hold, to get those long ribbons of red and gold and blue and green stretching all the way down toward the foreground, the surface has to go nearly still, and then you let a long exposure do the rest. The camera gathers the light over several seconds, the small ripples average out, and the river turns into a mirror. 

So I set up, framed the skyline behind the arch, and waited. Some of photography is technical. A lot of it is just standing in the dark being patient. 

When the water finally settled, the whole scene opened up at once, the arch sweeping from violet to red over the downtown towers, and then all of it again in the water, the colors bleeding and pulling with the current like the river couldn't quite hold them in place. Blue pooling on the left. Gold running straight down the center. Green sliding off toward the far bank. 

I stood there longer than I needed to. Some shots you take and move on. This one I wanted to watch for a while before I packed up.

Why this one mattered 

I've photographed the Minneapolis skyline more times than I can count, and I've shot the Lowry Bridge in plenty of moods. But there was something specific about this night. 

A bridge is the most literal symbol there is for connection, for getting from one side to the other, together. To see this one lit up in every color during Pride weekend, and then doubled in the river so the colors filled the whole frame, it stopped being just a cityscape. It became a picture of a city saying something out loud. I think that's why I cared so much about getting it right. 

I didn't have to invent any of the meaning. Minneapolis just handed it to me. I only had to wait for the water.

A quick word on the response 

I'll be honest, I didn't expect this one to travel the way it has. I shared it on Facebook, and within a day it had run away from me: more likes and shares than I've had on a single image in a long time, hundreds of comments, and a handful of folks reaching out about prints. Almost all of it warm, almost all of it people who simply love this city and love seeing it lit up like that. 

That response is really the reason I sat down to write this. An image like this isn't just mine once it's out in the world. It belongs a little bit to everyone who recognizes that bridge, that river, that skyline, and to everyone who saw their colors in it. 

Minneapolis knows how to wear its colors. I was just lucky enough to be standing at the river when it did.

This image is part of my Minneapolis cityscape collection. Like most of my night work, the deep blacks and luminous color make it sing brightest as a metal print, the colors take on a real glow against that surface. If you'd like to bring it home, you can find it in the shop.