I had a free evening in Wichita last week in between two assignments and decided to update some of my stock photography of that city. I’ve had twilight skyline shots that have done well over the years, especially one where the lights were reflected in the Arkansas River as it cuts through downtown. My initial thought was to update this shot in particular, but the great drought of 2012 caused me to change those plans slightly.

Wichita’s downtown has changed in recent years so I knew I’d need to change my angle of view from my old shooting location to a new one that would include more of the recent landmarks. Using Google Maps, I located downtown and the Exploration Place — which is built out into the river and has a very identifiable shape — and tracked back along a line that would allow me to get both in a shot with the river as a nice foreground. As it happened, it looked like another landmark would make an ideal foreground: The Keeper of the Plains by by Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin. First erected in 1974, it was raised onto a new stone outcropping at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers in 2006. A pair of footbridges echo the sculpture’s shape and provide access to pedestrians and bikes.

Upon my arrival, it was clear that there was not enough water in the Arkansas to make my initially envisioned shot happen. Here’s the best I could do:

Tough to see at this size, but the river is so low that only about a quarter of the skyline is reflected as compared to what normally would be. Luckily there is a bit of a dam on the Little Arkansas at this point so I was able to salvage a shot by crossing on over to the north bank and shooting back at the sculpture and foot bridges as seen in the shot at the top of this post. I got several variations from this point with varying degrees of sunset and twilight and am happy with what I came away with. I’ll just need to keep this spot on my to-do list for next year when the water will hopefully be higher again.