Weaselhead Bridge

On Monday of this week, I went for a walk in the Weaselhead area. The day was warm and sunny, and I hoped to get some pictures of the bridge. The original bridge was a beautiful wooden bridge built in 1971. In 1996, floods washed away the bridge and a new one was put in place across the Elbow River. This new bridge is concrete and steel and not as charming as the old bridge. I knew that I could not expect to simply take a picture of the bridge and I went prepared to try to find some unusual way of showing the bridge. Luckily, the river was frozen, so I was able to walk under and all around the bridge. I finally decided that this view would work. My original vantage point showed an unsightly sign on a post in the triangular space on the left side, and to get this out of the picture, I had to increase the focal length, and to step back about ten feet. I wanted this picture to be dramatic, so I situated the camera less than two feet off the ice. The sky was clear and blue, so I knew that it would darken the way I wanted, but the sunlight was producing a very bright area on the ground on the right hand side and also bouncing brightly off the right support leg. I knew that this would give me problems and when I looked at the picture on the screen, I did not like what I saw, and did not see immediately how I could produce the print I wanted. I moved away and spent the next three hours exploring the area and I ended up making five pictures, including another picture of the bridge that I will publish next week. As soon as I got home, I uploaded the images and this one was the last one that I worked on, as I really did not feel that it would work! I was wrong however because I was able to overcome the problems with the lighting, and in the end, the picture turned out just the way I hoped it would! I like the almost graphic design patterns of shapes and angles that form both in the bridge elements and in the sky shapes on either side, and I also like the dramatic effect that I had hoped for. It would have been so easy for me to delete this image, and I am glad that I persevered. It is now one of my favorite images.

[photo for week of 15 February 2010]

© David Butts, 2010