I love this photo. It’s the newly completed JW Marriott Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee and it hits the architecture photography trifecta; great architecture, great light and a great sky. It’s very purplish-pink…but that’s how it looked in real life. It was just an epic sunset that turned the entire sky a vibrant mix of oranges, purples and pinks.

Twilight images, such as this, take a lot of patience and effort to put everything together. Waiting around for the right lighting when there’s nowhere to sit and you can’t leave your camera can suck on occasion. That was especially true with this image because I and my camera were positioned inches away from a busy downtown street….at the tail-end of rush hour.

Unfortunately, this was taken before I got the Go Pro for situations such as this, so I can’t show you. You’ll just have to settle for my story-telling.

It was getting dark enough that I was firing off brackets (quick-fire images at different exposures). A guy on a scooter comes blazing down the sidewalk in front of the hotel. I was trying to get a little motion in the image, so I snapped a photo to get the scooter moving. Right after the capture, this guy hits a part of the curb and flies off the scooter, landing on the sidewalk. Don’t underestimate me when I say this guy “flies.” He didn’t stumble and quietly fall to the ground. This dude supermanned in epic fashion, flying several feet before splattering on the ground. It was one of those moments where I had to step back and ask myself, “wait, did that shit really just happen?!?!” Well, it did. He peeled himself off the concrete and walked back to his scooter, probably thinking that he should have worn a helmet today. He timidly hopped on and SLOWLY made his way down the sidewalk.

It was kind of like watching a guy on America’s Funniest Home Videos getting hit in the cajones. You cringe because you know it hurts badly…..but it’s also kinda funny. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not delighting in this guy’s misery…but he wasn’t exactly trying to be safe. He wasn’t seriously injured, either, so I don’t mind sharing the story in light of that fact.

That leads me to the main part of this story. I snapped another photo before he made it out of the frame. He and his scooter, post-accident, now live forever in the final hotel image, circled below.