Category: Landscape

Work Resumed on the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project This Week.

Work resumed on the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project this week.

Sunrise over Louisville’s Towhead Island

Towhead Island is at the eastern end of Waterfront Park in Louisville, KY.
Towhead Island is at the eastern end of Waterfront Park in Louisville, KY.

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Towhead Island is located in the Ohio River just east of downtown Louisville, Kentucky. It was formed by a barge that sank many years ago and obstructed the channel. Over many decades the river delivered loads of silt and debris which eventually created the island we see today. Not only is it a staging area for barges to be transported down river it is also a mini wildlife refuge hosting a few blue herons and the occasional beaver.

Fall sunrise on the Ohio River  in Louisville KY.
Fall foliage at sunrise on Towhead Island in the Ohio River at Louisville KY as seen from the observation deck below the Big Four Bridge.

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Towhead Island also creates a calm protected waterway to the University of Louisville’s boathouse, a police substation and a large marina. The lights on the distant shore are from the Jeff Boat boat building yards in Jeffersonville Indiana. On this particular morning the University of Louisville rowing teams were training and moving along the western end of the island.

The First Sunrise of Fall 2014

The first sunrise of fall 2014 over the Ohio River Bridges Project construction site for the downtown span.

Carpenters Working On Concrete Forms (Gallery)

The images in this gallery are of the Carpenters working on concrete forms on the Indiana Approach for the Downtown Span of the Ohio River Bridges Project. The carpenters are installing cooling lines that will carry water from the river through the concrete after it sets in order to keep it from overheating as it cures. Concrete cures due to a catalytic reaction between the cement and other chemicals in the mixture. If the concrete overheats during the curing process it may not be strong enough to do it’s job which is why it is crucial that some way to transfer the heat from curing out of the mass of material.

I processed the full color versions of these images using Adobe Camera Raw using a series of steps that i learned from reading Scot Kelby’s book on using Photoshop CS5. Rather than use my usual method of creating HDR images from three frame bracket sets I instead decided to work with the “normal” exposure alone and see what I could accomplish using ACR.

After creating the color images I decided to use [thirstylink linkid=”13827″ linktext=”Topaz” class=”thirstylink” title=”Topaz”] B&W Effects to produce versions that have an antique feel to them. I used various adjustments to create my own preset that desaturated the colors and added a vignette of faded edges. I then applied a border from Topaz that I thought fit the idea I had for the final images. I saved this preset to use later on other images that may benefit from similar treatment.

Click on any of the images to open a lightbox and slideshow of all these images.