Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: John E on May 17, 2012, 08:24:35 pm

Title: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: John E on May 17, 2012, 08:24:35 pm
I'm sure there are thousands of fine photos of this lovely old bridge on the Oregon Coast in Newport. Here are my efforts, the first two are attempts at capturing portions of arched sections, and the last a shot showing the general location down by the bay where I took these.

This is one of the five bridges on the Oregon coast designed by Conde McCullough back in the 30's, and I believe this one opened in 35. C&C always welcomed.

John

Edit: Yeah, I totally hosed up my posting attempt. Obviously the first and third are the arched sections.
Title: Re: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: ced on May 22, 2012, 04:53:50 am
John love the 3rd it has a very silky look to it,  what gear was used?   Well done and thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: John E on May 22, 2012, 10:18:05 am
Thanks, CED, for taking the time to look and for your comments. These were shot handheld, using my D200 and 18-70 (both since sold to finance the D700 purchase). The third was shot at ISO 100, 52mm, f8, 1/100. With that bright sky, I really could have benefited from the D700's ability to retain detail in shadowed areas, as this one actually has quite a bit of noise, thus I mostly converted these to BW.

John
Title: Re: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: wolfnowl on May 23, 2012, 02:22:01 am
For archaic structures like this I find B&W often works well, so I prefer the first over the third.  The lines in the middle one are interesting but it looks a little too tonemapped for my taste.

Mikee.
Title: Re: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: francois on May 23, 2012, 06:01:18 am
For me, first and third images are really outstanding. I like the B/W process of the first photo. I'm not so sure of the colors on the third photo, I would also try in B/W.

The second image is different with many more elements. I also like it but the simplicity of the "arch" images wins for me.

Congrats
Title: Re: Yaquina Bay Bridge
Post by: John E on May 23, 2012, 01:03:11 pm
@Mike and Francois - Thanks for the comments. The second picture is just to give an idea of the bridge as an almost whole. No real tonemapping, I just reduced the contrast a good bit to better display what it looks like.

As for the color pic, I agree that B&W works much better here, and the first pic is the one that works best for me also, as it emphasizes the wonderful steel curves. The color version was just to give a general idea of the look of the bridge. In fact, in the initial Raw conversion of the first (BW) pic, the color doesn't actually come through as it did on the third (jeez, I've even got myself confused, now). So it was an easy choice to convert it to BW. I have another shot taken from under the far end of the bridge, where the green contrasts nicely with other copper/bronze colors of supportive structures. To post on another day, perhaps. Thanks again for the kind comments.

John