Lift Bridge

jadin · Jul 8, 2004

I took this shot the other night, this is the Duluth Area Lift Bridge. There's only a couple of this style bridge in exsistence. Anyway, the road part of the bridge is raised to allow ships to pass underneath. This is a 100 second exposure at the f/29. The shot is the bridge lowering back to it's original position after a ship passed through.

Since I live close to this, I plan on going back to perfect this shot, but I'm really not sure what I want to accomplish with it. I like the idea, but I haven't captured whatever it is I'm looking for in this shot. Any suggestions?

malachite · Jul 9, 2004

It's a cool shot. I would have composed it a it differently with the bridge itself a little higher and more to the left, using the reflection on the water to emphasize the subject and color. I see a fence creeping into the foreground that I might have tried to both include by panning down a bit or exclude entirely by getting as close to the fence as possible to shoot over it.

Idea wise I would have stopped down 1 or 2 f/stops to extend my exposure time. Start your exposure before the bridge started to drop to get a solid exposure outline of it in the up posistion then let it go down for the motion. Once down, let it expose a bit to get another exposure outline. I of course am not there to see what's really going on so I might be talking out my a$$.

It's a cool pic by itself without the motion but right now it looks like a neat still shot with some motion action going on but it's hard to decipher. Maybe emphasizing the start stop points would would bring out what your seeing in your head and not your actual result?

Annette · Jul 9, 2004

Pretty interesting shot. I've only seen the bridge during the day. I don't think the immense size comes across in the photo but maybe that's just me. You have a bit of a tilting horizon. Otherwise it's a nice shot.

Big Mike · Jul 9, 2004

Another idea might be to try multiple exposures. You could try to get the bridge in a few different positions on one frame...or take a few and combine them in PS