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Louisville is experiencing a revival of it’s East Market Street area now known as the NuLu District. NuLu is attracting tech startup ventures, galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, lofts and other uses that repurpose what had been vacant or poorly maintained buildings into vibrant new spaces. NuLu is close to the Louisville Waterfront Park, Main Street night spots, the new Yum Arena and Louisville Slugger Field. It is also attracting a diverse group of enthusiastic young professionals, artists and entrepreneurs who are brimming with ideas and ambition.

There is a lot of activity in this area such as the building on the left in this photo. The early morning sun really lit up the facade and that’s what drew my eye to the scene. I know some folks would pass by a scene such as this because the construction isn’t completed but for me that is an important element. I see the overall scene as one of renewal and reuse. Instead of continuing to expand the city’s footprint by developing outside the city core; projects such as this bring new vitality to what was once a rundown and under utilized section of Louisville. I  like documenting these sorts of projects and attempting to create a piece of art that will tell future generations what our wonderful city was doing at the turn of the century.

From a technical point of view this is a three exposure bracket set using -2, 0, and +2 Exposure Values. It has been merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I used the Deep #1 preset where I made some adjustments to the tonality settings and dropped a control point in the street to darken it slightly. (There was a minor snowstorm through here a couple of weeks ago and the street still has a salt residue on it which left it very grey.) I then returned the merged files to Aperture 3 where I completed my adjustments and sharpening.