Month: November 2012

Louisville Bridges Panorama

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Louisville Bridges at Sunset

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This photo is from Louisville’s Waterfront Park near the Kennedy bridge which carries I-65 across the Ohio River. The bridges on the left and right, the Clark Memorial Bridge and the Big Four railroad bridge were constructed in 1928. I find it amazing that they both were built in one year. In contrast today there is another bridge that will be built, starting later this year, alongside the Kennedy that will require almost three years to complete.

This image was created by cropping a single frame into the panorama format. I then processed it in NIK HDR Efex Pro and Aperture 3. I wanted to emphasize the perspective of the scene by positioning myself almost under the Kennedy and shooting the image with my 18-55mm lens set to 18mm at f9.

Ohio River Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Orange Dawn

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This panorama was taken from the Big Four Bridge looking upriver; the river seems so calm and sleepy in the early morning hours. I really liked the way the sky was reflected in the river that morning and the minimalist feel that it imparted.

I processed this image in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using the Deep 2 preset as my start point.

Not much more to add except that I hope all my readers here in the US have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve baked three pumpkin pies and a sweet potato casserole as my contribution to our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Now all I need to do is deliver them and then sit back and enjoy our family’s company.

Over the Top

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Over the Top

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Today’s image was taken from above the Big Four Bridge when Tim Williams took me up in the 135 foot tall man lift. We were in one of the middle spans on the bridge and as he worked the basket through the bridge super structure I saw this image. We were looking south over the top of the bridge and for the first time I saw the beauty of the elliptical  ramp that leads up onto the bridge from Waterfront Park. The ramp is a quarter mile long and is an engineering marvel. It incorporates multiple radia as it spirals up to the bridge. The engineering that went into designing and building it have led to numerous engineering and architectural awards.

I chose to process this black and white version in Aperture 3 using the Black and White adjustment panel. I tried all the various filters and ultimately opted to use the orange filter to get the level of contrast I was looking for. After that I adjusted the exposure, contrast and sharpening before exporting it as a 300 DPI JPEG file.

Magic Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Magic Morning

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It’s been a while since I posted anything but I’ve been busy shooting the final days of the Big Four Bridge project. I shot this image from the Big Four Bridge a couple of weeks ago and just found time to process it last week.

Though it appears to be a HDR image this image is from a single frame and was processed entirely in Aperture 3. I chose to use this frame from the bracket set I shot because it had an excellent histogram that was not blown out in the highlights or blocked up in the shadows. It was very early in the morning and the sunlight had not begun to illuminate the shoreline but the reflections of the clouds were so dramatic I couldn’t resist the shot.