Posts in Category: bridge
Feeding Time for the Fledgling
Fledgling Barn Swallow being fed.
Yesterday I walked the section of the Kennebunk Bridle Trail on either side of Rout 9 looking for Dragonflies. The bugs were few and far between. However it is fledgling time at the bridge over the unnamed creek that flows into the Mousam through the marsh on the ocean side of the the road. Barn Swallow fledglings rest on the warm stores of the bridge each year, and the adults hunt over the creek and Marsh and come back, not often enough for the fledglings, but often.
I managed to catch this sequence at 1200mm equivalent (full 600mm optical plus 2x digital extender) on the Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. In this case the adult landed for a split second next to the fledgling, but often it seems the parent makes the pass while still in flight. The touch on the stone was so brief, that without photographic evidence, I might have taken this for hovering feed as well.
Processed in Snapseed on my tablet and assembled into the panel in Pixlr Express.
Currier and Ives
No. This is not my house. But it such a classic view that I could not resist framing it. So Currier. So Ives. So Currier and Ives. Actually, a little wiki research this morning informs me that Currier and Ives were only the print makers. The New England winter scenes I associate with the name were actually drawn and painted by George H. Durrie, and in the mid to late 1800s, the Currier and Ives catalog of hand colored Lithographs included everything from scenic landscapes to hunting scenes, portraits of prominent Americans, renderings of important moments in American history, and even political cartoons. Anything and everything that the aspiring American housewife of the period might want to hang on the living room wall. Their speciality was sentiment.
And this is certainly a sentimental scene. It has that “over the river and through the wood” look (and quite literally at that :-). It speaks of Thanksgivings and Christmases in simpler times. It is, in fact, more like an idealized painting than a photograph…though I assure you the scene is very real.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Smart Auto. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 using the HDR Scene filter, Ambiance, Shadow, Sharpen, and Structure. It was cropped from the top for composition.
Under the Kennebunk Bridge
As I may have mentioned before, my active search for an American Ruby-spot in York County has taken me places I would not otherwise go. For instance, I have crossed the bridge north of Kennebunk, where Route 1 goes over the Kennebunk River, thousands of times…multiple thousands of times…but I have never even thought to stop and climb down to the river to see what is under the bridge.
No American Ruby-spots unfortunately, but some interesting rapids and small falls where there evidently once, a long time ago, was a dam. I suspect there might have been a mill there back in the water-power days…that, or I am mistaking old bridge abutments for a dam.
I have done a bit more editing on this shot than normal. It got my usual “Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.” but then I took into PhotoShop Elements for a bit of work with the clone tool to remove a set of power-lines that stretched across the sky and through the trees.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 24mm equivalent field of view. f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200.
Lafayette Building, Bridge, Mousam River: Kennebunk ME
Yesterday was one of those rare summer days in Maine, more common in August than in July, when clear cool air from Canada was pushing down across the state. Temps just touching 80. Low humidity immediately after a night of rain. Amazing clouds against a blue summer sky. And light that seemed to gently etch every detail. I had to stop my scooter on the bridge over the Mousam River in Kennebunk, on my way back from my lunch-hour dragon hunt at Roger’s Pond, and catch the moment…several moments as it turned out…as I also crossed the road to get the Mousam without the bridge.
Shooting at the wide end of the Canon SX40HS zoom, 24mm equivalent field of view, and with the camera not level with the horizon, always leads to some interesting distortions…which are very evident in a shot with the straight line verticals of buildings. While it is common these days, and pretty well accepted, to see images with the wide angle and perspective distortions left in, I used the Lens Corrections panel in Lightroom to pull the building back up straight and correct some curvature due to lens distortions. The result is not perfect, but it is more natural, I think, than leaving the building leaning out over the bridge. 🙂
From the other side of the bridge, looking directly out over the dam, the mill pond on the Mousam reaches away under that same sky, with interesting shadows and reflections. I left just a corner of the building in to anchor that side (again using Lens Correction in Lighroom for the angles).
Both shots, Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. I exposed for the sky, tipping the camera up and locking exposure before recomposing for the shot, and brought foreground shadows up in Lightroom.
4/19/2012: Golden Gate, San Francisco CA
When I go to Godwitt Days in Arcata California, to save $1000 in airfare, I fly into San Francisco and drive the 7.5 hours to Arcata. I would not do it, of course, if it were not such a great drive.
I generally arrive at SFO mid-afternoon, and head up Rt. 101, which, if you know the route, takes you right through downtown SF and across the Golden Gate Bridge. I only go half way the first day, stopping in Ukiah. My GPS, attempting to avoid the worst of the traffic, sent me on a tour of parts of SF that I have not seen before, including the Presidio and the National Cemetery, and put me back on 101 within site of the bridge.
And of course, I had to stop at the vista on the far side of the bridge. I know it is very touristy thing to do, but, honestly, who could not? As usual (in my experience at least) there were low clouds rolling in from the sea…just touching the bridge…and stretching out over the city, but the vista and most of the bay were in sun.
I walked around, looking for angles and frames, trying to keep the real tourists out of my shots.
It was a delightful rest after the tension of driving through the city, and primed me for the rest of the trip north (good thing, since it was stop-and-go traffic to north of Santa Rosa and I did not get to Ukiah until after 7PM).
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1) 24mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 125. 2) 24mm equivalent. f4 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. 3) 43mm equivalent. f4 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 200. 4) 175mm equivalent. f4.5 @ 1/300th @ ISO 100.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, sharpness, and clarity.
1/19/2012: Vegas HDR (The Venetian)
You have to kind of (or at least I have to kind of) disconnect my sense of reality to enjoy Vegas. If I even for one moment allow myself to see through the incredibly expensive veneer (or to think about where the funds that paid for all this came from, which amounts to the same thing), then…well then I don’t like Vegas much. So on my way from my room to the show floor at SHOT yesterday, I carried my camera in my hand and made myself find some beauty. I was looking for images that I could process in Dynamic Photo HDR for interesting effects. The reflections in the canal were eye-catching, and, as I suspected it responded in interesting ways to DPHDR.
Canon SX40HS at 100mm equivalent field of view. f4.5 @ 1/20th @ ISO 1250. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.
Processed in DPHDR for a single jpg Tone-mapping. Final processing in Lightroom (Intensity and Sharpness and a bit of noise reduction).
10/20/2010: duck brook bridge, Acadia np
The bridges of Acadia National Park were built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. to employ master stone masons out of work due to the depression. They are, real works of art…but none are easy to photograph, and Duck Brook Bridge, which spans a deep little ravine, is particularly hard. Finding an effective vantage point is particularly difficult, especially among the trees. This shot catches some of the interesting features of the bridge, and puts it in is natural context…this is a view anyone who visits could see. The leading rail of the fence was an experiment that I think works, and between exposure and Lightroom processing I managed to preserve a relatively natural and balanced look. A slight crop from the bottom was applied to eliminate the more severely out of focus rail, and to improve composition.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/400th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Some Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right for intensity. Added Clarity and a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
And a second view.
8/27/2010: The Dom and the Bridge
It got later and later on my rainy evening walk through old town Wetzlar, but the evening light lasts a long time in Germany. I was headed back to the hotel when I made a last stop for this classic shot of the Dom above the stone bridge over the Lahn. Once more a shot I have taken many times, but never in this light, and never with HDR in mind. The drama of the cloud cap, the last light, the moisture in the air softening color and prespective, and elegant arches of the bridge set in rustic stone, the pastel gables of the old houses, and above it all the tower of the Dom (and that anachronistic blue polyester tarping). Quite a shot, even without the fairy light of the fountain on the trees at the right. 
Two radically different exposures allowed me to capture the light of the foreground and the gray of the sky, and Photomatix Lite put them together for a pretty remarkable effect (if I do say so myself).
A little help from my usual Lightroom routines (Blackpoint, Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpen), and some perspective and distortion correction, and there it is.
Canon SX20 IS.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/21/2010
Lahn Bridge: Wetzlar
An very old coble stone bridge provides access to the lower part of the old town section of Wetzlar. Here we see it in another late evening shot (after 8PM) on a rainy day in August. The concrete sluice way replaces falls and rapids that contributed to flooding in the past, and keeps the water through the commercial section of the new town at manageable levels. The river is managed, in part, for tourism as it is one of the most popular canoeing trails in Europe.
This is a sudo HDR using the tone mapping functions in Photomatix, applied to a single image, plus some tweaking of Blackpoint, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpening in Lightroom.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent @ f2.8 @ 1/60 @ ISO 200. Landscape mode.
From Germany and England 2010.
11/26/2009
The Bridge and the Dom
Happy Thanksgiving Day to all!
The stone bridge that connects Old and New Towns in Wetzlar, Germany is one of the major tourists attractions, maybe just behind the The Dom…the almost cathedral that dominates the Old Town skyline. In this shot, taken low to catch the arch of the bridge, you get both.
Despite the less than ideal light, the Sony H50 manages enough depth of field for an effective shot.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F3.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint slightly right. Sharpen Landscapes preset.
From Germany 2009.