Right on Schedule | Bridgeton, NC
Purchase prints here.
This is part two of a bucket list shot that I posted a few days ago, and in my opinion, the better of the two. At first I was concerned about this one turning out. I only had time to shoot one frame of the train in this position, so everything had to be right and ready to go in camera. Turned out pretty good!
You can check out the old post, complete with a lot of info on bucket lists and the back story to this series of photos here.
The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, 2 exposures (one for the train and bridge, one for the sky). Manually masked in Photoshop.
Crossing the Neuse | Bridgeton, North Carolina
Purchase prints here.
Each and every photographer has a list of shots that the dream of. This ‘Photographer’s Bucket List’ is something that helps keep us going, striving for that shot that we have planned in our head time and time again. Most, if not all, of these dream photos can only happen by being incredibly patient or just being in the right place at the right time. If they could be planned, then they wouldn’t be so special, would they?
I have two sets of Bucket List Shots. The first one contains shots of and at places that will probably not be places that I spend much time at in my life. Fog on the green mountains of New Zealand, the blue interior of a glacial cavern or a foggy sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge…places I fully plan on shooting eventually, but not places where I anticipate I will frequent. Set two are local shots. It’s a shorter list, but easier to achieve. All I have to do is be in the spot when conditions are right.
The above image was on that list. For those of you not familiar with the New Bern, NC area, at its mouth, the Neuse River is the widest river in the United States. Just a few miles upstream, in New Bern, it is still plenty wide. There is a very long span of railroad bridge that passes just a few feet above the water’s surface. I have long wanted to shoot a train passing over, just after sunset, so that I could capture the clouds and color of the sky, the light on the engine and the reflections of it all on the calm water.
I have been to this spot numerous times in hopes of achieving my shot. I have seen trains pass, I have seen the sun set. But never at the same time. On this particular night, I set out to shoot some pretty astounding storm clouds that were passing just west of New Bern. I figured my best bet was to shoot them from the other side of the river, and capture the sun setting over downtown. Soon after the sun set, I was packing my gear up when I saw the light of a train slowy moving across the far corner of New Bern. When I saw it make its turn toward the river, I hopped in my Jeep and sped to this little spot along the tracks for my shot.
The train was coming toward me so slowly. It just seemed to be creeping along. But, as it reached the point on the tracks where I wanted to start shooting, it seemed to just blow right by. I was able to get two shots, this one and one of it closer with a lot of motion (which I like more).
In the end, sometimes the best way to plan one of your bucket list shots is to not plan at all—just hope for some good luck and timing!
The shot: Nikon D90, 18-105mm Nikkor VR lens @18mm. 3 exposures, bracketed. Tonemapped in Photomatix and then masked together with original frames in Photoshop. The water is from the middle exposure, the sky from the darkest exposure (lightened with the middle exposure) and the bridge was from the tonemapped file. Finished with a touch of contrast and glamour glow using Nik Color Efex Pro.
Reflections of a Forgotten Time | New Bern, NC
There is a section of the Neuse River in New Bern that is littered with what is left of wharves, piers and pylons from industry and commerce along the river banks in the past. Standing behind them is a train drawbridge spanning the river and connecting to Bridgeton.
I’ve visited this spot several times to scout it for shooting, but each and every time I have been there some shady people show up and creep me out. This isn’t in the greatest part of town and to make matters worse, is located in a little corner between vacant homes, piles of junk and abandoned warehouses. I have more plans for shooting here, but they may require some shooting buddies…just in case :-) ‘Strength in numbers,’ as they say.
The shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 18-105 lens @40mm. f-200, iso-200, f/20. 3 exposures, tonemapped with Photomatix and finished in Photoshop using Nik Software.
Golden Hour Bridge Passing | New Bern, NC
This shot was taken just as the sun was beginning to set to my back. A really, really great golden light was cast across the bridge, which opened to let a sailboat through at the same time!
A little back story is as follows. My buddy Brad came to town to shoot the sunset with me. We met up at the park next to the drawbridge with plans to shoot the sunset from the observation deck of the bridge. I have never shot a sunset up there, but it has a high, unobstructed view of the Trent River with the sun setting right smack-dab in the middle of it. So we made our way up on to the bridge, at least an hour and a half before the sun would actually be setting. Brad brought an extra body and was going to set up for a timelapse of the setting sun. Cool!
After over an hour of shooting (it was now literally 10-15 minutes before the sun would set), the bridge operator got on the intercom. “All pedestrians need to vacate the bridge, ESPECIALLY THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS.” Now what was this all about? He returned to the intercom to tell us a boat was coming and no one could be on the bridge while a boat was passing. This is not true. There are cars stopped on the bridge when it’s open and I have been walking on the bridge when it is open. You just have to stop at the gate. Still, he adamantly motioned and told us to get off the bridge, “NOW.” We returned the ‘thumbs up’ sign, but he continued to gesture (to put it lightly) toward the end of the bridge. Maybe he thought we were giving him a different finger? I just figure we over stayed our welcome. We are, after all, photographers- we had to have been up to something….groan.
So we gathered up our stuff, Brad’s timelapse was mere minutes away from being cinematic gold, and left the bridge. As soon as we passed the last set of gates, the alarm sounded and the deck began to raise. It was about then that a friend of my Facebook page, Jared, arrived to shoot. We passed him on the bridge and the three of us hustled around the river walk and down to the area behind the New Bern Riverfront Convention Center just in time to catch this boat passing under the open bridge.
The last bit of day light was great, as you can see here. So maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we were kicked off the bridge. There is no way we would have caught that great golden reflection from up there!
The shot: Nikon D90, 8mm Rokinon lens, f/22, ISO-100. 2 exposures manually blended in Photoshop CS4. Finished with Nik Viveza and Nik Color Efex Pro.
Gotham City | Pittsburgh, PA
Connect- Facebook | Twitter | Flickr | 500px | Google+
Pictured is Fifth Avenue Place in Pittsburgh, rising above the Roberto Clemente Bridge. You may or may have not seen some awesome images this past summer of this building sporting a bat signal as The Dark Knight Rises was being filmed in the city. This was shot during a predawn photowalk with Dave DiCello and Ben Beard over the Christmas holiday.
I shot this with my Nikkor 50mm lens with a 20 second exposure at f/22. I love the detail and the shape of the flares that this lens is capable of creating. I admittedly don’t use it much, but these cityscapes make for a great time to break it out of the bag.
The Shot: Nikon D90, Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens. Single exposure, 20 seconds, f/22, ISO 200.
