Lakeland Power

As I came home from a friend’s wedding on Saturday night, I passed by a part of Lake Parker that I don’t normally pass at night. From this particular vantage point, the power plant that sits on the other side can be plainly seen from the road without obstruction. The one thing that stuck out to me that night as I drove by, was the stream of colors reflected on the surface of the lake from the power plant. I kept on glancing over to take in this unexpected beauty. I couldn’t believe how cool it looked. This otherwise unassuming structure created something beautiful to behold.

The problem though, was that I did not have my camera that night. The most I could do was just envision myself stopping to capture the light show.

That was until Tuesday night. Through some circumstances, I found myself on that side of town again, this time doing a photo shoot favor for one of my friends. I was going to be photographing some people indoors, so I had brought my tri-pod along. As I went to the shoot, the thought of the beautiful, power plant light show that I had viewed a few nights before had totally slipped my mind.

On my way home, I once again was drawn to the spectacle of lights on Lake Parker. This time though, I conveniently had my camera and tri-pod with me. As I began to pass the spot, I quickly decided to stop and capture this scene. There were no cars behind me, so I abruptly came to a stop on the side of the road. I was just past a boat dock area where I could safely park and photograph. So, once some cars passed by, I put my black Mustang in reverse and drove safely backwards to the parking lot which was just about 50 feet back.

Before too long, I had captured the image you see above. A shot or two later, the currents changed a little and the long stream of color was cut in half.

I had captured this just in time.