bridge Archives - Page 6 of 8 - Just Enough Focus

April 22, 2016

Decompression

Maybe like a lot of you, I sit at a desk all week. Monday through Friday, day-in, day-out. I restrain my movements to a few square feet while I talk or listen endlessly on meeting after meeting. The week is a progression of days leading ever so slowly to the last hurdle, Friday. On Friday morning emails are tinged flippant references to what awaits in another eight hours. Then finally, after an eternity, it comes.

This is what decompression looks like, a central mass expanding. Friday feels like this.

Friday night, Saturday and Sunday during the day are all free. Free of deadlines, free of worries, free of compression. Then, sometime Sunday afternoon or evening, the realization that it’s almost over kicks in. I watch my favorite shows, think about what I wish I’d done, go to bed.

Monday morning is all business, get the dog walked, get to work, get through e-mails before my first meeting. Settle in, focus on the task, narrow my center of mass. Five more days to go.

Hey, check out my favorite images here. But, if you don’t agree, pick your own favorites here.

April 17, 2016

Heron and the Bridge

It seems whenever I’m taking photos near the water here in Florida, herons are never too far away. They’re skittish to be sure so you can’t just walk up to them and expect to get a picture. Having a telephoto lens helps a lot, with this shot I was back a ways and still able bring the bird up close. I’m not a wildlife photographer, but once in a while if the opportunity presents itself I’ll go for it. Real wildlife photographers have a lot of patience, and work long and hard to get a good image. In this case I positioned myself so the heron was framed by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and fired away.

While I was here a couple of serious or “real” wildlife photographers walked up. They had big heavy long lenses and tripods that looked like something I’d expect to see on an African safari. They were here taking photos of the birds including this one. They had serious looks on their faces to go with the equipment they were carrying. Anyway, I got my shot, nodded to them and left the bird in their expert care.

Even today, a couple of weeks after I took this shot, I was by the water again and another Heron landed right in front of me. Again I tried to work him into the shot from a good distance so as not to spook him. Not always do the shots work, but it never hurts to try. When I take photos I try to keep my eyes open for any happy coincidence that might happen. Sometimes it helps to add another element to the story, sometimes it might even become the main subject. Anyway, in this case it just seemed to work, thanks to buddy bird here.

Some of my favorite images from the gallery

April 8, 2016April 8, 2016

Simple Bridge

This is one of two bridges that connects Bradenton to Palmetto. I live in Palmetto which is a small town so I take a lot of photos of, on and around these bridges. Bridges are a persistent theme with me as I’m sure you already know. To get these long exposures at night I use a tripod to hold the camera steady while the cars drive past creating long ribbons of light. In this case it was a thirteen-second exposure. Normally I’m freezing an instant of time however in this case thirteen-seconds. Freezing time is a funny concept, but don’t think too deeply about it, I wasn’t really going anywhere.

Back to the bridge, I said there was two bridges, but this was taken from a third bridge. It was the original bridge that crossed the river and was built maybe a hundred years ago, it now serves as a fishing pier. What’s left of this original bridge stretches about a half mile into the river so it allows this close perspective which might have required a boat.

my night gallery on flickr

Urban landscapes are interesting to me, especially when I can portray a simplified scene like this. Shooting at night helps remove some of the distractions, processing in monochrome simplifies it even more. I also like how the pilings are a repeating pattern below the lit surface. There is some kind of message of strength in there I think, maybe. Again, let’s not get too deep, this is a small town and this is a simple bridge. End of story.

more bridge images from the gallery

March 31, 2016April 5, 2016

Track Crossing

These tracks cross the Manatee River between Bradenton and Palmetto. A lot of people like to stop here and take pictures, for some reason it seems to be a popular spot for prom photos. I suppose it’s an iconic location in this small blue collar town. Every morning and evening we hear the train blowing its horn as it crosses the river on the way to the plant.

I know I’m repeating myself, I’ve taken this image before. But every now and then I’ll do that, go back to a place where I’ve taken an image and do it again. Each time it’s a little different, I approach it with slightly newer eyes. Regardless, I think this shot always ends up being a little gritty, full on urban, no sunsets or beaches.

Other photos from the riverwalk section of Bradenton

The bridge here is almost a mile long. In the middle is a section that lifts to let the boats pass. I’ve seen fishermen walk out on this although there are signs all over warning people to stay off. The river itself is fairly shallow except in the center. Just the other day I saw a couple of fishermen walk under these tracks in about two feet of water about a quarter mile out from the other side. Big rivers being what they are I find that a little extreme, you won’t find me doing that any time soon.

More “urbex” from the gallery

March 9, 2016March 10, 2016

In the Next Life

This is a I275 rest stop near Tampa just before the Skyway bridge. Its one of the most scenic highway stops in the state, especially at sunset. Truckers know this well as I see them all lined on break with this scene out their windscreens. Moments like this, especially at dusk, have me longing for the open road; next life perhaps.

Other images of or near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge

In this life I’m a software architect by day and a photographer by night. It keeps me home yet longing for the road. I spend more time pining for a journey than the comfort of home. If I was a trucker it would be the opposite, longing for home on long lonely highways. The best solution for me is to live in the moment, be thankful for what I have. I am thankful for what I have, but in my next life, …

Speaking of the next life, if you could choose to come back as an animal, what would it be? I have so many ideas it would be hard to choose. Living here in Florida I’d want to be an Eagle or Osprey, I like the thought of flying high and surveying the landscape, although I’m not sure about eating my prey while it’s still alive. Another idea; my own pet dog, his name is Wiggles, he gets a tonne of love and has a good life. But he is a rescue, and I wouldn’t want to go through the abuse he did before we got him. On second thought, I guess I’m happy just being me for now.

March 8, 2016March 8, 2016

Bay Area Lights

This is a long exposure of the San Francisco Bay Bridge I took last year. I was with about three hundred people on a Trey Ratcliff photowalk. The problem with me and photowalks is that I’m a straggler. I see so many things that I want to take pictures of that I end up at the back of the pack, I can’t seem to keep up.

Click here to see the California Gallery

This is one of many thirty-second exposures I did while standing here with a tripod. If you do the math that puts me in this spot for about ten minutes. By the time I had enough presence of mind to look up the end of the pack was hundreds of yards down the road. Time to run.

Now, many months later, I just happened to look at this and remember that evening. I met many people and had a blast. Also I just noticed the V-shaped light in the distance between the two leading lines. I don’t recall seeing it that night. Anyway, now this is one of my favorite shots from the photowalk.

March 6, 2016March 6, 2016

Iconic Morning

I can be such a tourist at times, like when I took this shot of the Vancouver Convention Centre against the back drop of the harbour, bridge and mountains. It would not surprise me if there are a thousand of these photos taken everyday. To prove my point there was a little plaque where I stood to describe the scene. One minor difference is that I took this at an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning before any self respecting tourist was out of bed.

Check out more images from the Vancouver gallery

But its karma, or something like it. I live in an area of Florida where there are a lot of tourists, so it’s only fair that I should get to be a tourist once in a while. Actually, it’s not karma, its more like tourism payback, serious payback. That makes no sense.

Off to the right is the Lions Gate Bridge, beyond that are the mountains and at the tops you can make out the lights of Cypress Bowl, a local ski area. Between the bridge and the convention centre is Stanley Park and to the foreground of that is the sea plane port. But the one thing that catches my eye, and everyone else eye, yet gets left out of the tourist plaques is the gas station. Why on gods green earth they decided to put a gas station in the middle of Vancouver Harbour I’ll never know. But there it sits, along side all the other icons of Vancouver. Interesting.

January 6, 2016January 6, 2016

Riverwalk Fishing Pier

The Riverwalk Fishing Pier is in Bradenton not far from my home. I love coming here early in the morning when everything is quiet and the water is still. The way the weather works, as soon as the sun rises it generates a breeze which ripples the water, so the only way to see it glassy like this is before dawn.

The river flows into the Gulf of Mexico so it rises and falls with the tide. At high tide the pilings are mostly submerged. I’ve heard that decades ago there was a hurricane in the gulf and the water drained from the river before the onslaught of the storm surge. It was said you could walk across the riverbed. I’ve only lived here about ten years and not seen anything close to that, hopefully I never will.

I walk my dog here, he is a rescue. For some reason he is afraid of any walkway above the water and so piers are difficult for him. I’ve worked with him over the years to overcome that fear and now he’ll walk out to the end with me. I don’t rush him and I give him plenty of positive reinforcement. Whenever I see this pier it reminds me of how much progress he’s made. Life’s little pleasures.

January 3, 2016January 3, 2016

Vancouver Cityscape

This is the Vancouver cityscape as seen from Cypress Point. Its probably one of the best locations to get a panoramic view of the city at night, a must see if you are there. I was thinking about Vancouver because I’ll be heading back there soon and was wondering what has changed since I was last there. Last time there was a lot of construction underway and the joke was that the local bird is the crane.

I find that even when I’m away from home for a week or two, I always see little differences when I return. It might be something simple like a new store at the mall or a section of re-paved road, but something new that makes an impression on me because it wasn’t there when I left. When we see same things everyday, we don’t always notice the changes. I ignore a lot because it seems so commonplace, kind of like watching a clock move, we don’t really notice the hands moving but come back in an hour or so and they’re in a different place. So it is with my small town of Palmetto.

Now multiply that by a thousand times and that would be Vancouver. I’m curious to see what new buildings have been constructed, what might have changed at the airport, and maybe even what new shops are at the mall. I’m sure if I ask a Vancouverite they’d say not much has changed and I’d get a chuckle out of that.   Having said all that, some things will never change; the beauty of Lions Gate Bridge (pictured here), Stanley Park and the amazing mountain peaks that surround the city.

January 1, 2016January 1, 2016

Into the Light

Out from the dark and into the light. This image could be a metaphor for all kinds of things. It’s a new year and so maybe this is a metaphor for new beginnings, or perhaps nothing at all. Meaning is in the eyes and mind of the beholder, so whatever this makes you think of is cool.

In one respect images are like a Rorschach Test. We each look at the ink blot and see something different, something constructed from our inner world of associations, thoughts and emotions. I just happened to snap this while standing under the bridge, it’s just a picture. But now that I look at it, it reminds me of other things completely. For you the thoughts invoked are surely different.

These are my favorite kinds of images, those that bridge the gap between mundane and metaphor. I think having a person in an image allows me to project myself into the scene, either as the observer or the observed. It’s a matter of perspective. I project myself as the person with the bike which is kind of funny because in real life I was the observer with the camera. In a manner of speaking, I switched roles between the time I took this and the time I viewed it. Maybe this is a lot of gibberish about nothing, or maybe there’s an insight. I suppose that depends on what we choose to take out of it. For me perhaps it’s a metaphor for going into the light.

In any case, Happy New Year everyone.