jmannimages
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
I live in rural West Virginia where there are a lot of creeks and hilly and mountainous terrain. It is typical for a person to have to cross a creek to get to his or her home. In this case, the homeowners built this wooden bridge that would allow them to cross the creek along the main road to get to their house. It was not too far from where I live, and I decided to see if I could capture it in a way that I was pleased with.Time
This was taken in the late afternoon, in early fall on a somewhat cloudy day. There were still a lot of green leaves on the trees, but just enough of fallen ones on the bridge to add some color and interest.Lighting
The canopy of the leafy tree tops provided enough shade to prevent shadows and a nice even diffuse lighting for the shot.Equipment
I shoot with a Nikon D800 and was using a 24 to 105mm sigma lens at the time. I was laying on the ground with my camera resting on my backpack (also on the ground) to get a low interesting angle so that the viewers eye would travel across the bridge to the other side. Iso was set at 200; 44mm and the exposure was 1/40 sec and f 9.0.Inspiration
I shoot a lot of different subjects that are in close proximity to where I live. I knew about this bridge but had never tried to capture it before. The fall season was just starting and the weather was nice that day, so I decided to give it a shot (pun intended). Deciding to take the shot of the bridge from this direction and viewpoint was not hard because I didn't feel like getting wet in the creek below and I wanted to capture the surface of the wood as well as depth of the bridge so my choices were limited. I took several images at different angles and really liked the lower perspective the best.Editing
I always shoot raw and edited this particular shot in lightroom as well as onOne software Perfect Effects. I used a glow filter and increased the vibrancy just a bit and darkened the wooden planks that appear in the foreground. I think this helps the viewers eye to continue to move across the bridge.In my camera bag
I use a Nikon D800 and my current lenses are a sigma 24 - 105mm, Nikkor 50mm, Micro Nikkor 40mm, and sigma 150 - 500mm. I also carry along a Ravelli tripod to have at hand in case I need it. I very rarely use a speed lite since most of my work is outside, but will grab my Yongnuo if I think I will need it. I have just introduced some Lee filters to my equipment bag and am starting to experiment with those. I have a 10 stop ND and a 3 stop graduated ND to start with.Feedback
Everyone sees through a camera lens differently. This is what makes photography so interesting! Once you have found the subject matter for your shot, I would encourage the photographer to experiment with a lot of different angles and composition. It is so easy to take many different shots in this digital age, so shoot, shoot, shoot! You can go through all of the images once you are done and delete those you aren't happy with. If you don't have to travel far to get to the subject matter you want to shoot, then you have the opportunity to images of that subject in different lighting conditions and seasons. I try to take my camera everywhere I go. You never know when you might capture a "winner"!