You can’t capture great photos without having great access, so I’m always trying to go places where people aren’t usually allowed. The roof of the Sciences Library is a unique vantage point of campus, Providence, and beyond. This photo is from a time lapse, which uses still photos to speed up time visually, that I did on a brisk October morning for a video project. I was up there for about three hours, starting at 5:30 a.m., with my very patient facilities escort, Joe Souza, and my student worker. I dressed in layers and brought some coffee, but mostly I kept warm moving around a lot, checking my three cameras, adjusting exposures, and checking out the views. It was still fairly dark out, so I used a five-second exposure to capture all the available light from the east. It was dark enough that a lot of lights were still on, but enough light was coming from the horizon to illuminate campus. More than a few people have thought this was Photoshopped or computer generated, which is quite the compliment!

Mike Cohea is the University’s multimedia producer and photographer. His photos appear regularly in Brown Medicine and other University publications. To see his time lapse sequences, go to http://vimeo.com/52797966 and http://vimeo.com/56075656.