Swallow Nests

As promised, this is the second picture I took of the Weaselhead Bridge last week. I had just finished the first picture and as I turned to walk away, I looked up and under the centre expanded section was this collection of swallow nests, abandoned for the winter. To take this picture, the camera had to be pointed up quite steeply, and as I did not have a ball head on the top of my tripod, I had to secure the front leg of the tripod with a rock to keep the camera and tripod from tipping over! As can be imagined, the vertical lines converged very sharply and I knew I would have to do some perspective correction. The sky was clear and deep blue so I knew that I could produce a black sky easily. What I forgot (once again!), was that when I anticipate perspective correction, I must allow enough space around the area I want to be in the final picture, because stretching occurs and with cropping, some of the image is lost. It took me quite a lot of struggling to get the effect that I wanted; just enough convergence, dramatic black sky, and the lovely lines formed by the bars and supports. In addition, the image does have a story to tell. I was forced to crop a bit more than I wanted, but I still like the final image.

[photo for week of 22 February 2010]

© David Butts, 2009