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The New Bridge

Each time I travel to San Francisco I pass over the Bay Bridge. This new section was recently completed after a monumental construction project. Now they’ve started deconstructing the old one which sits adjacent to this. Finally after many months it’s getting so you can take a picture of the new bridge without it being crowded by the old one.

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The New Bridge
The New Bridge in San Francisco

I took this from Treasure Island which is halfway between San Francisco and Oakland. Fortunately it was calm that night so as to produce the colorful reflections on the water.

I take pictures of bridges because I find them fascinating and especially enjoy images at night. That’s because bridges form leading lines for our eyes to follow. They also have repeating elements to provide a sense of scale and direction. The link below is a collection of bridge pictures from places I’ve been.

bridges in the gallery

I grew up near San Francisco so I’ve been over the old bridge countless times. Maybe in a hundred years we’ll all fly drone cars and won’t need bridges. Until such time they’ll keep building new ones and i’ll keep taking pictures of them at night.

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Fortunate Enough

This is a long exposure of the marina in Palmetto. Once the sun goes down the glow on the horizon fades for about an hour. The last few minutes of the glow are almost imperceptible yet appears more pronounced with a long exposure. This is image is eight-seconds and of course was taken with a tripod. Because the glow is more pronounced it contrasts with the night sky directly overhead. It’s a unique lighting situation that I was fortunate enough to capture. The scene is enhanced even more by the color of the thin clouds above the boats.

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I Was Fortunate Enough
I was fortunate enough to capture the light of dusk

I didn’t know ahead of time these conditions were occurring. But I had my camera and was looking for something to capture. Taking the time to notice what is happening is a skill. This scene was not apparent with a casual glance. To see a scene like this I need to slow down and put myself in a different mindset. In that mindset I’ll see scenes I’m not necessarily looking for.

boats in the gallery

My theory is that interesting things appear around us all the time. The challenge is to get past that little voice that insists there is nothing to look at. I get that a lot when I go out to do photography. To push past that takes will power. It produces rewards by simply continuing when I think I should give up. I surprise myself sometimes at the shots I get. It’s not that I’m super talented, it’s more that I give myself opportunities. The more I do that the better my chances. That sounds like a sports metaphor but it’s equally applicable to photography, or, any other worthwhile endeavor; at least thats my theory.

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Night Scenes Across the River

I shot this in December when the conditions were favorable for fog. It’s an opportunity to capture familiar scenes in a different light. Advection fog occurs when warm air passes over cool water causing evaporation. I live near the river so I notice it just by looking out the window. I headed out one evening to shoot night scenes across the river in Bradenton.

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Night Scenes Across the River
Night Scenes Across the River

If you notice, fog changes our perceptions. Sounds are slightly muffled and distances are cut short. It can be intimate or confining. It creates a sense of seclusion in a place that might normally seem open and exposed.

Like the transition from day into night, fog creates another type of transition from sharp to soft. With weather transitions, there is usually a bit of magic just after it occurs. It’s something new and is a transformation from clarity into a soft glow.

monochrome-ish shots

By using a high ISO I am able to capture these scenes at night without a tripod. Fog creates a visual playground for me as a photographer. It casts everything in a different light and invites fresh interpretations. The same can be said for inclement weather, however fog is the least troublesome to work in.

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Canal to the Intercostal Waterway

To took this picture as I stood over a canal to the intercostal waterway. I was in the village of Cortez where there are many little outdoor restaurants by the water. Its one of my favorite places to come for an authentic Florida experience.

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Canal to the Intercostal Waterway
Canal to the Intercostal Waterway in Cortez Florida

This bridge is one of two that cross over to Anna Maria Island. Both are draw bridges and each time I cross I secretly hope to get stuck. The draw bridge takes five or ten minutes to operate and during that time you turn off the engine and watch the sailboats, dolphins and fishermen.

As I write this we are in peak tourist season. Its spring break and people are here to enjoy the weather and beaches. Because I’m a resident I don’t always keep track of these things. But as soon as I walk into a restaurant or try to drive somewhere it becomes apparent.

more night scenes

As well it is also spring training season for baseball. We have a perfect storm of sun seekers and sports fans. It’s fun to see and good for the local economy. Merchants look forward to this all year. I’m pretty relaxed about it all and as I said, even look forward to getting stuck on one of the many bridges.

Not that I should need an excuse, but traffic over a bridge is one way to slow down, enjoy the sights and imagine what its like to be a visitor on spring break.

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Miami to Dallas

I took this one night on a pier facing the Gulf of Mexico. I only noticed the streak of light after I returned home. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a commuter flight from Miami to Dallas. Sometimes when I travel out west, I go to Miami first and then fly back over my town in central Florida. I have no way of knowing for sure.

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Miami to Dallas
The commuter flight from Miami to Dallas

I sat on this pier, the only person at the beach in the late hour, aiming at the heavens with my camera and tripod. At fifteen-seconds, this is a relatively short exposure for night photography. But I planned it that way because anything longer than about 20 seconds creates star trails with the rotation of the earth. To get this I set the ISO to 1600 and my lens aperture to f2.8. That lets enough light in for the stars and causes the water to appear flat.

I like taking photos at night, especially of I can capture stars. But I’ve never gotten a great image of the Milky way. I have plenty of opportunities, it’s just a matter of knowing when to drag myself out at night and point the camera in the right direction. There are plenty of clear nights where I live so I’m beginning to think I should work on that.

night photography

The other day I wrote something about the number of stars in the Galaxy and the universe. Suffice to say it’s a number too large to comprehend. That being said, I can think of no better way to try than to sit out on this pier at night and see how many I can jam into my camera. And who knows, I might even catch a commuter flight while I’m at it.

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Photographic Angle

A photographic angle of a modern building caught my eye while walking through a big city. It’s at the foot of Telus Gardens which is a new building with innovative architecture and is supposedly one of the most energy efficient in the world. The image is a little confusing. The translucency and reflections of the elevator on the left create a little perplexity.

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Photographic Angle
Photographic Angle of Telus Gardens in Vancouver

I took several identical frames hand held using a high ISO setting. Normally I would use a tripod but this time I was trying a different technique. I used Photoshop to combine the identical images and eliminate the noise. I learned the technique from this tutorial by Serge Ramelli.

Because I live in a small town walking around a big city is an experience for me. Sometimes I think I’d like to live in a large city. I love the energy, especially the creative inspiration I get for photography. I get a lot of that when I’m in a place like Vancouver.

favorites gallery

Later when I get home I’m happy for the quiet and relative calm of a small town. It’s not a contradiction, just a matter of being happy where I am. No matter where I end up, I’ll always be looking for a photographic angle.

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Saturday Night Fireworks

These are the Saturday night fireworks we had here in my hometown for the annual regatta. It’s the third year and each year it gets bigger and bigger. They shut down one of the main bridge so people can stand on it to watch the Formula One races. Those boats are pushing the limits of the laws of physics, it really is crazy to watch. The day is filled with food, acrobatic displays and concerts and ends with a firework display.

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Saturday Night Fireworks
Saturday Night Fireworks at the Bradenton Area Regatta.

I took this from across the river near my home in Palmetto. Palmetto is a small town compared to Bradenton, but they share the river and during the regatta each city joins together to put on the show.

When I arrived at the little beachhead along the river to watch the fireworks there was a couple already sitting in their lawn chairs waiting for the fireworks. I asked how it was going and the guy replied it was a little cold. We laughed but basically called him on it. He was from upstate New York and his son just sent him a picture of the snow up there. Here we all were in shorts and sandals watching fireworks. Maybe he was just being facetious so I told him to send back a picture and see if he gets any sympathy from the folks up north.

Bradenton Images

I’m fortunate to live here in Florida especially at this time of year. I just returned from a couple of weeks in Canada and I can say with certainty that it is not cold here. The only cold thing is the ice in the fridge that we use to keep our drinks cold.

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Preferred Parking

On Saturday night I was walking back to my hotel in Vancouver and had to stop and do a double take when I passed what appeared to be preferred parking. It’s adjacent to a nightclub and what caught my eye was the modes of transport, i.e. German engineering. I have no idea which club this is but just after I took the shot I saw another couple arriving in a Porsche from Washington State. I guess the club is worth the two-hour drive up. If I had one of these cars I’d park here as well. Surely the valet attendant is well tipped.

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Preferred Parking
Preferred Parking in Vancouver BC

At the time I was walking around looking for street scenes to photograph. My Sony camera is so good at night photography that its something I look forward to doing whenever I’m in a big city.

It’s been about six months since I was in Vancouver and the one difference I noticed was the amount of people smoking weed in the open. I’d say it was more than in Amsterdam, and if you’ve ever been to Amsterdam that’s saying something. Maybe because it was a Saturday night, but I’m not sure.

monochrome gallery

Anyway, there is always something to see / do / smell when walking around here. Everyone is out having a good time and some people know how to arrive in style.

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Sarasota Skyline from Afar

The Sarasota skyline from afar is something I never get tired of. This is about a mile away. I took this while standing near a boat launch on City Island.

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Sarasota Skyline from Afar
Sarasota Skyline from Afar

This happened to be one of the few times of the year it was cold and windy. That’s great for this type of photography because the air is crisp and the clouds blur against the sky when the exposure is long. The only difficulty is getting the camera to remain steady against the winds. I have a good tripod but sometimes that’s not enough. In this case I shielded the camera on one side of my SUV so that the car acted as a windbreak.

I take a lot of pictures of Sarasota. Its close and has views across the water, something I favor. A long time ago I made up a rule, let’s call it the rule of fourths. The idea is to get as many of the four elements in the picture as possible. Using fire, air, water and earth, I compose an image, the more the merrier. The rule doesn’t always work, its more of an idea than a rule. However I’ll find myself working with it in an image almost subconsciously.

sarasota gallery

Each time I come here to take a photo the conditions are different. The last time I came it was in the morning, it’s a good sunrise spot because it faces east. Once I captured a big thunder cloud over the city on a summer afternoon. Each time I show up at the same location there will be something different, the trick is to notice; that’s the idea, not a rule.

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Amsterdam Underpass

A darkened central Amsterdam underpass creates a setting that is best described as a scene. Scenes are a combination of things that together make it more than just a place. Looking for scenes is a pastime of mine especially when walking through cities at night. Textures, light and motion combined to evoke imaginary scenarios rarely rooted in reality. As I took this the trains rumbled overhead completing the urban soundtrack of this vignette.

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Amsterdam Underpass
Amsterdam underpass creates a mysterious scene

This underpass was something of a mystery to me when I first arrived in the city. It is across from my hotel and as I timidly explored I couldn’t see where it ended. As it was late I shied away from following it to the other end. Later I discovered it led to a busy neighborhood full of shops and bistros. But my initial trepidation contributed to a state of mind (erroneous as it was) that created this foreboding subterranean scene in my mind.

street gallery

This image is simply a combination of light and shadow, textures and movement; the sum of which becomes greater than its parts. If that isn’t over thinking an image I don’t know what is.