The day after my conference in California, I was looking for a photo excursion that was close to home (or at least, to my hotel). Searching in the local area, I found the Don Burnett Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge, a cable-stayed bridge crossing the I-280 in Cupertino.
Of course, being me, I had to make the trip at blue hour to capture the last of the sunset light, combined with the lit up bridge supports towering overhead. It was the perfect opportunity to get out the ultra-wide lens and capture the architecture of this bridge.
Despite being quite late when I took this, the bridge was still remarkably busy, which made getting this shot quite tricky, timing-wise! This was even more the case as the lights were bright enough to justify the use of HDR, with a total of 7 bracketed exposures taken to capture the shadow detail and highlights of this scene.
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
If you're interested in any...
Fantastic. I can't tell if I'm excited or disappointed by this … usually HDR stuff does nothing for me but you know, you're a bit brilliant at this game … on the other hand, having fairly little desire to get into it myself … does that exclude me from getting shots as awesome as this?? :)
What an incredible shot! The perspective, color and lighting Is spectacular! We're you able to " clear the bridge" using HDR and post processing? Super Fav!
@aliha Thanks! I'm not a big fan of the HDR 'effect', with halos and over-contrasty areas, so I very much try to make sure that when I do use HDR, it stays away (I hope!) from that style. In many cases I could get a similar effect with a single exposure just by aggressively brightening the shadow areas in post-processing, but using HDR gives me more sharpness and less noise than that would, which is very useful when making large prints. In other words, I don't think you necessarily need HDR to capture the essence of this scene!
@mikegifford This was actually taken in late June, I only just got around to processing it! The webcam timelapse is very cool, thank you! I was optimistic when I saw you could retrieve any image from any day that I might be able to find myself on the bridge, but it looks like the images stopped being recorded in 2009 :(
@redy4et Thanks! In this case I cleared the bridge by patience alone, waiting until the bridge was clear to take each of the component shots. This meant that the shots were taken over a few minutes, as I couldn't do them all in one burst. The short exposures were relatively easy to take, but I have quite a few 'duds' in the 20 second range, where I started the exposure when the bridge was clear, and then a cyclist or pedestrian entered the frame! All part of the challenge!
This is stunning, what a great bridge, reminds me a little of our Anzac Bridge but it is much bigger. congrats on TT, your images are always so sharp and wonderfully composed, Fav
Stunning, Alexis! I can see why you're a popular photographer to turn to "when the going gets tough" for "novices" like me who've only been taking pictures since childhood but with little instruction! Thank you for your assistance...I'll enjoy seeing your photography!
@mikegifford This was actually taken in late June, I only just got around to processing it! The webcam timelapse is very cool, thank you! I was optimistic when I saw you could retrieve any image from any day that I might be able to find myself on the bridge, but it looks like the images stopped being recorded in 2009 :(
@redy4et Thanks! In this case I cleared the bridge by patience alone, waiting until the bridge was clear to take each of the component shots. This meant that the shots were taken over a few minutes, as I couldn't do them all in one burst. The short exposures were relatively easy to take, but I have quite a few 'duds' in the 20 second range, where I started the exposure when the bridge was clear, and then a cyclist or pedestrian entered the frame! All part of the challenge!