First Nightwatchers

Recently, I attended the First Night Festivities in Downtown Pittsburgh's Cultural District. I had known about the festival for a few years now, but always managed to attend something else on New Year's Eve.

This year, Sarah and I decided that we were going to attend. The previous year was a bust for us and we didn't want to get stuck in that situation again. Anyway, I was amazed by the amount of activity and the mass of people that found their ways to Penn and Liberty Avenues that night. In the dwindling hours leading up to the raising of the ball (that's right, we don't "drop the ball" in Pittsburgh) is where this picture was taken.

I titled it "NightWatchers" for obvious reasons. All of the energy and waiting, the magic and anticipation, the cold and the thoughts of being in our warm beds at home seemed to come to life for me in this shot. After having spent nearly six hours on my feet walking the downtown streets and galleries, when the ache of my legs started nagging, when the cold began to seep into my hands and feet, is when it all became worth it.

Thank God that Sarah is not tall or else this moment would have never happened. After feeling the disappointment of being blown off by the illusive fortune teller, for what seemed like the tenth time, neither of us was in the mood to have person after person step in front of us and block our view of the stage in front of Fifth Avenue Place and the Clarks (who, by the way, are freaking awesome! I wonder what time they finally wrapped up?). After several attempts to find a clear line of sight - and offending more than our share of onlookers - we dashed across Stanwix Street, away from the crowd, and settled on some stairs in front of the State Office Building.

At this point, with more than an hour and a half left, and having drained our minds by valiantly attempting to decipher several artists' work, I decided to try my hand at my own art; Sarah followed suit. You can imagine how much patience I really had at this point and quickly lost my motivation to pursue my picture taking. Only, just as I was trying to zone out to expedite the end of the night, this father and son come to rest on the stairs and BOOM! It hits me.

I recommend that if you're in the Pittsburgh area for New Year's Eve that you check out the First Night festival. The enthusiasm of the event is definitely inspiring.

First Night