Skyline Photography in Toledo, Ohio

Photo and story by Jason Dozier

On the back-end of a 14-hour trip to mid-Michigan, I hurried to hit my downtown Toledo, Ohio photo location before nightfall. Just beating total darkness, I was able to pull into my pre-determined photo location, which was the riverfront parking area just off the Main Street Bridge on the east side of the Maumee River, looking west at the city’s business skyline at about 8:45 PM.

The sun had already set, and since it was still early in the year, I was left with the last remnants of light in the western sky. It was a clear night, so the horizon, which was directly in front of me from this location across the river, had a nice pink glow, giving way to a deep blue sky.

The first few images I snapped appeared spot on in my viewfinder, and I was hoping I’d still feel the same when I saw them on my computer screen. The colors were working perfectly with the water and the city lights were spread along the entire riverfront, lighting the buildings just right, with the exception of the tallest building dead center of the skyline that had not a single light on at the time I was shooting.

I found this frustrating at first and kept waiting for the lights to start appearing, but found when I got home that it added a bit of a subdued feel to the photo that does seem to work. I’ll look forward to returning to see if the lights were just temporarily unavailable or if it was abandoned.

I made a note that as I looked at the now dark Toledo skyline in my rear-view mirror, I needed to get back to town when I can spend a few hours walking what appeared to be a nice, upscale downtown area.