umeda skyline

I took these photos the morning following a day of rain, after having discovered this area on the Yodo river with a perfect unobstructed view of the Umeda skyline a few days beforehand. The large tower is the Umeda Sky Building, probably Osaka's biggest building. I woke up at 2:30 in the morning in order to give myself the 2 hours required to get ready and cycle to the site with time to set myself up. It was an amazing ride – not a breath of wind and not a soul was about, I felt like I had the whole city to myself. The first sunrise shots I took of the baseball net and skyline didn't turn out because of dull cloud cover.



Thinking the reflections created by the large puddles would be a good way enhance the already powerful skyline, I changed my tact and went about looking for the best image. Eventually I settled on the shot shown here, using the remote control made taking the shot easy. I was lucky that the clouds behind the camera had broken enough to be lit by early morning orange light, which can be seen reflected on the mirror-like glass of the Sky Building.



Seeing the clouds moving towards the city, I went back for another attempt at the baseball nets, hoping for just enough of a break in the clouds to let some warm orange early morning light through. I waited until the time was right, then snapped like mad as a small break in the cloud cover let just enough light and blue sky through, the whole event only lasting maybe 3 or 4 minutes before disappearing into more dull cloudy sky.