Louisville Kentucky Skyline #14291

The Story

The Louisville Kentucky skyline is a remarkable and stunning sight across the Ohio River from the Indiana side, a view that can compete with any city anywhere in my opinion. The colors are intense and reflected across the wide waters of the Ohio River. A few of the large bridges just out of view here are lit up in colored lights at night as well. All of it makes for a fantastic city panorama and one of a kind. To me, this dazzling view is very beautiful and rare enough to seem almost unreal.

Louisville seems to be a very liveable place. The downtown is large and undergoing a rebuilding renaissance into a cultural and arts center. The University of Louisville has a large presence in academia and sports there. People there are generally proud of their home and heritage, and most enjoyable of all, I found any of them very easy to talk to.

Louisville is also home to one of the top summer art shows in the country, St James Court, always ranked in the top three in the country if not number one. Thankfully, through repeated invitations to attend, I sold my artwork there for fourteen consecutive years. It became one of my favorite shows to do.

Many times the show was held through very warm weather. In the evening after a hot day at the show, I’d head across the Ohio River to a small park along the river in Jeffersonville Indiana. There I’d find a few benches and an ice cream stand with this outstanding view of the Louisville Kentucky skyline laid out in the dark. A cool breeze would always be coming down the river and I’ve never known a better way to relax after a hot show day. It was the epitome of chilling out. Of course, being a photographer, this scenic city panorama had to be captured.

Making This Louisville Kentucky Skyline Panorama

I tried to photograph in the dark here several times over the years using only a tripod and camera, but the missing tool was a good panoramic bracket. I finally bought one making the job far easier and a lot more accurate. With the subject distance, I used a 70-200mm lens to draw things closer and seven images from left to right were created. Back at the studio, they were stitched together into one and then trimmed to this 3:1 ratio.

No doubt you’re wondering about that huge moon hanging in the sky barely above the city skyscrapers. Lunar orbit doesn’t come that close to earth…if it ever does, it would be best to go hide under the bed! Truth be known, I added the oversized moon to the city view after the fact from an older shot of mine. Plenty of stars in the sky too, but I added them digitally as well. The panorama was fine without the additions, but I wanted to create something unique and interesting with something special about it. I hope you’ll agree it was successful. This city panorama is available as 12×36 or 20×60 on canvas or stunning gloss metal.

Other City Views

Pittsburgh At Night #14325 offers another intriguing American city view at night, this time of the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh PA. Yet another interesting city view in a similar vein is Hollidaysburg PA City View #14894 although a much smaller place in Pennsylvania. It’s always great and enjoyable to get above a town to photograph wide.

Picture location: Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky, along the Ohio River. Panorama picture and text © Andrew Dierks