Gateway Bridge
Under the Gateway bridge in Brisbane
Under the Gateway bridge in Brisbane
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Apr, 2016Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
I took this photo from a fishing pontoon under the Gateway Bridge in Brisbane. As fishing boats passed by in the river the pontoon was moving around a bit so it proved quite difficult to get good, long exposure shots. In one shot I caught a light trail from one of the passing boats before the wake reached the pontoon but unfortunately it just looked like a line through the image and wasn't visually appealing.Time
This was my first proper foray into night photography. I'd dropped the kids off, my wife was out so I had the night to myself to explore some scenic locations. I'd been fishing at night from this very spot several times and had admired the reflections from the bridge lights. It was about 7:30PM when I arrived and I stayed there for over an hour experimenting with various angles and settings.Lighting
I had a lot of difficulty trying to capture the vivid purples and blues of the lights and reflections while at the same time keeping some detail in the background so as not to have a solid black sky. At the same time, I didn't want the highlights from the white street lights to blow out. It was a really fine balancing act between shutter speed, aperture and ISO. I ended up taking more than a dozen shots from the same angle using different settings before I was happy with this one.Equipment
My camera is an entry level Canon EOS 1200D. I love prime lenses for their sharpness and the way they make me think more about composition so I was using my EF-S24mm f/2.8 STM for this shot. I've got a Manfrotto Compact Action tripod which is excellent for travelling but it's a little bit flimsy when the legs are fully extended so I tend to only extend them up half way and crouch down to frame up the shot. Then I just used the Canon wired remote to trigger the shutter.Inspiration
The location is right in the middle of one of the major industrial and shipping areas of Brisbane so it's not exactly tranquil or scenic most of the time. I've been drawn to this spot for years as a quite getaway from the hustle and bustle for a spot of fishing. At night the area takes on a completely different feel with small fishing boats cruising past and fruit bats flying from tree to tree. The noise of the near-constant traffic on the bridge is muted and fades to white noise in the background.Editing
The photo only needed minor adjustments in Lightroom CC - the white balance needed to be warmed up a bit to bring the natural colour back to the bridge structure and I dropped the highlights a small amount to fix up a couple of blown out highlights.In my camera bag
Normally I carry around most of my gear as my collection is still quite minimal. Canon EOS 1200D Canon 50mm f/1.8 Canon 24mm f/2.8 Canon 10-18mm f/2.8 Plus the Canon 18-55mm and 70-300mm kit lenses. I've also got a Yongnuo speedlite, some CPL, UV and ND filters as well as a Lenspen. My mini Gorilla-pod and Manfrotto Compact Action tripods hang from the side of my Loewpro backpack style camera bag.Feedback
As I'm still a beginner in the field of DSLR photography I'm more interested in taking than giving advice. As much knowledge as I can get in fact. I will say however, that with memory cards being so cheap, take as many shots as possible, experiment with all the settings on the camera and get away from the auto setting as soon as you can. The manual setting is not as scary as it first appears.
