Tag: bridges

Big Four Bridge at Sunset

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Big Four Bridge at Sunset

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I’ve been taking a few days off from the blog to focus on my ongoing Big Four Bridge documentation project as the construction nears completion. I’ve been able to photograph the men as they are working and last week I was there as the first section of the final bridge deck was poured. Watching the crew at work is amazing as they go about floating the concrete, then hand finishing the edges and finally applying a broom finish to it. Tomorrow the pouring resumes and I’ll be there with my camera to capture the ballet that goes on as they place the concrete and finish it.

This image was captured last week after thunderstorms had moved through Louisville. I wanted to create an image that showed the Big Four Bridge from the eastern side. It is difficult to get a good vantage point to shoot west and include the Big Four Bridge. I have found that there is a vantage point on a small platform that is just east of the bridge that affords a pretty good view of the bridge.

I processed this image entirely in Aperture 3 without using any plugins or HDR software. I shot an entire bracket set but decided to only use one frame that showed a good histogram that didn’t indicate blown highlights and with just a little blocking up in the shadows. I’m really enjoying working with single frames as opposed to merging several frames in a HDR program as it challenges me to shoot for good exposures that have broad histograms.

Waterfront Park View #2

Posted on by Nick Roberts
We’ll Be Landing in Louisville

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This is another shot I took from high above the Big Four Bridge last month.  It was early and the sun was just rising when I captured this scene. The airplane in the sky adds interest to an otherwise empty sky. The river is so placid early in the morning almost as if it has been sleeping and is just waking to a new day. Waterfront Park is a treasure that many Louisvillians are unaware of; the park extends east of downtown for several miles and reinvigorates a former blighted area of Louisville. The park sits on land that at one time had nothing but scrap yards, asphalt terminals, barge docks and derelict structures all along the riverfront. The land has been reclaimed and decontaminated over the past twenty five years to create one of the most unique parks in America.

I processed this single frame HDR image in Aperture 3 and NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to get just the right atmosphere.

Louisville Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Louisville Morning
Louisville Morning

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Last week I decided to shoot a panorama of the Louisville Waterfront Park and the Ohio River from the vantage point of the Big Four Bridge. I set my tripod up and shot nine frames in a 180 degree arc from left to right. I wanted to capture the soft pinks and blues of the sky and the reflection of the Kennedy Bridge in the water. As an added benefit of this panoramic shooting technique the bridge is shown from two different viewpoints. I especially like the altered perspective that occurred with the left and right sides of the image where the Big Four Bridge is shown from different angles.

I merged the nine frames in Photoshop CS5 using the Automate/Photo Merge command. After merging the images I flattened it and cropped the edges slightly. I then returned it to Aperture 3 where I lightly adjusted the exposure and very slightly increased the vibrancy and definition sliders. I then applied a little sharpening before saving it for the web.

 

Big Four Bridge at Sunrise

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Big Four Bridge at Sunrise

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This is an image from my first ride up in the man lift to shoot from above the Big Four Bridge. I didn’t know how high I could bring myself to let Tim lift us in the air. Ultimately I have been able to ride the man lift to 135 feet in the air which including the height of the bridge above the river means I can say that I’ve been up to 215 feet total above the river.

For this composition I used the bridge members to divide the image into several triangular sections. I processed this image entirely in Aperture 3 without any plug-ins.

Louisville Skyline

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Spring Skyline

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This image is the Louisville skyline viewed from the Indiana shore of the Ohio River. The bridge is the Clark Memorial Bridge which carries US 31 across the river. I shot this image early this past spring and processed it in NIK HDR Efex Pro and Aperture 3.