An illuminated escape path will help you to reach the exits …

After a night of steady rain, the city had fallen into that reflective state that only wet streets can produce. The pavement was still slick, holding onto the water as though unwilling to let it drain away. Streetlights scattered across the surface, each one elongating into streaks and patches of colour, turning an ordinary walkway into a shifting canvas of muted golds and greens.

What caught my eye first was the faint line of embedded lights tracing a curve through the centre of the frame. They weren’t bright enough to dominate the scene, but they did give it direction—a subtle guide through the reflections and irregular textures. The rain had softened the edges of everything; even the harsh geometry of the paving stones seemed to dissolve under the glaze of water.

Technically, it’s a difficult exposure. Low light, reflective surfaces, and constant subtle movement in the thin film of water make the scene prone to noise, blur, and flaring. I embraced those imperfections. The grain, the softening of highlights, the slight ghosting from artificial lamps all contribute to the mood. A cleaner image would have betrayed the atmosphere of that moment.

The composition leans heavily on abstraction. There are structures in the background—railings, benches, a couple of indistinct silhouettes—but they recede into darkness. The eye stays low, moving across the illuminated patches on the ground. What should be a functional public space becomes momentarily theatrical, lit from below as though part of a stage.