We drove to downtown Rockford this morning right before sunrise to try capture a photograph of the sun rising over the city. Of course, nothing ever goes as planned but in this situation it worked in our favor. Our initial idea was to try to incorporate the Jefferson St. bridge into the photo but the blocked-off construction site at the old library location didn’t give us access to our intended spot. As time was crunching before the sun rose, we scrambled throughout downtown to find a new location that would work with the direction of the sunrise.
At the end, we pretty much called it quits and were ready to leave the downtown area. This path took us to Chestnut St. to cross the river back to the east side and that’s when we saw the recently installed “Rockford” art sculpture. We immediately pulled over and knew this was going to be the shot of the day! As we were parking our car, the sun come up just above the horizon – talk about perfect timing. However, this still didn’t give us the starburst effect since a sign about 20 years away was blocking the sun. After several minutes, we finally had the sun at the position where we needed it and we took the shot.
Locust on Rockford art by KB Digital 
Locust on Rockford art by KB Digital
We noticed a little black speck on the letter “K” and initially thought it was something on our lens or our camera screen. After closer inspection we noticed it was on the sculpture itself so we moved a little closer, hoping the art wasn’t damaged. Luckily it was just a huge, and we mean huge, locust. So, of course, we had to snap a couple pictures of him as well before heading out for the day. We couldn’t wait to get back to the office and to process the image.
Once it was developed to our liking we immediately published it to two of our social accounts – Facebook & LinkedIn. We will do Instagram at a later time since we do those in rows of 3. We were so eager and excited to share it that we published it before we even managed to write this article – which we usually don’t do. Soon after it was published, it began receiving lots of attention within the Rockford community and we are so thankful for everyone’s love.
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Equipment used:
Camera: Canon Rebel T6i
Lens: Rokinon 8mm fisheye
Monopod: Altura 62″ monopod
KB Digital 