Hour

Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.

My original intent for getting a shot for this challenge was to get a picture of a clock tower somewhere in the area. I have seen some in the years I have lived in the area, but I need help remembering where. After a few minutes on Google and I had located a few.

But I decided on the clock tower above the archway at Blair Hall, a residence hall on the Princeton University campus. Blair Hall, the University's first collegiate Gothic dormitory, was a Sesquicentennial gift of John Insley Blair (1802-1899), a trustee of Princeton from 1866 to 1899. Originally the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks came to the foot of the broad steps leading up to Blair Arch, which served as the entrance to the campus for visitors arriving by train.

I wanted to associate the image of the clock with the concept of an hour. But which hour of the day? Night or morning? I thought that shooting the clock tower at blue hour would work best. I imagined the building and the clock lit with lights against a blue sky. I didn’t know if it would be or not. This was only in my imagination.

I could have gotten up early and taken a photo at sunrise, but I was not comfortable walking around the Princeton University campus, taking pictures at that hour. I decided to aim for the golden hour or blue hour.

But things didn't go according to plan. Perhaps because I did not plan. My brother-in-law and his wife had their second child, my niece Raina. She was born a week ago, and my wife wanted to visit them at home without the hospital's restrictions. We had fun watching the baby and distracting Raina's older sister, Hazel. She was having some challenges adjusting to having a baby in the house who seemed to be stealing all her parent's time. We stayed a little too long, and the sun was setting by the time we left Annandale.

I missed blue hour by one hour. But my week-long research indicated that the clock tower was illuminated at night. Not this night. Nope. Sigh.

Hour, Blair Hall, Princeton University
Blair Hall, a Princeton University residential hall with a clock tower.

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Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.