Grand Island Bridge Color Study
Nov, 2015Views
3053
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Awards
Runner Up in Chasing Symmetry Photo Contest
Winner in Leading Lines Photo Challenge
Contest Finalist in Composing With Symmetry Photo Contest
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Contest Finalist in Composing with Diagonals Photo Contest
Staff Winter Selection 2015
Peer Award
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A_B_digital
November 11, 2015
Beautiful long exposure, James, with perfect symmetry. A brilliant capture!
PRO+
Pjerry
June 11, 2017
Congratulations with your challenge.
It's a spectacular capture and very well deserved...
It's a spectacular capture and very well deserved...
PRO+
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken at the base of the South Grand Island Bridge going from Buffalo, NY and Niagara Falls. There is one bridge on each side but this one is the most photogenic of the two.Time
It was late morning and the shot was facing north-west. The wind was up, it was freezing and the water was splashing everywhere. All in all a creative sort of day. I remember running across the field chasing a small bag of parts that blew out of my camera bag.Lighting
The day was a real "flat light" kind of day. I had just purchased a Lee Big and Little Stopper set and I figured it would be a perfect tone on tone sort of shot. It's really important to never accept defeat when faced with less than perfect light. Taking the time to appreciate what might be made of the moment may well give you a great shot.Equipment
This was shot on a Nikon D810 with the Nikon 24-120mm lens and the Lee Big Stopper. My tripod is a Really Right Stuff TVC-44 tripod with BH-55 Ballhead. Big, solid quality is always a must in a gale, right?Inspiration
I am constantly looking for locations that will expand my experience and vision. Photography is an art for me and I make every effort to grow a bit all the time. In this case my desire was to create a symmetrical image and initially it was supposed to be post-processed as a black and white but the color image had such a great mix of colors that I liked it better.Editing
Post-processing on this image was minimal. Beyond simple clean-up of a few sensor spots I simply added a bit of a vignette to help pull the eyes right through the center of the image. I like to accomplish as much as possible on location and in this case I wanted the focal point to be dead center. If you break it down you have a big "X" and and it gets brighter as you work to the center of the X. I think the best images are frequently the simplest.In my camera bag
I have been a Nikon kind of guy since I started and I really only needed three lenses, Nikon 24-120, Tamron 15-30 and Tamron 150-600. I have others but I rarely ever use them. I just bought a Sony A7rii and I followed my experience in picking the lenses, 16-35, 24-70 and 70-300, all Zeiss/Sony glass. Basically you have all the bases covered for landscape photography. I will still have the D810 body and Tamron 150-600 in my bag for wildlife.Feedback
So really, the biggest lesson here is simplicity in composition. The beauty is that wherever you live, you can find a composition like this that offers a simple form of symmetry. Take your time, working out a simple composition and thinking how the final image will look on paper or screen. Addition by subtraction is important. If it doesn't add to the scene or desired effect, remove it from the composition.
