Mill Avenue Bridges, Tempe – Part 2

By the time I get good at any house maintenance task,
I never need to do it again.
– Dad (who was moved pretty regularly for work)

Photography can seem sorta like that: By the time I figure out what will work, or what I want, I never get a chance to do it again. We’ve moved on. Or the birds have.

So it’s nice to have a few months in a place and a subject that doesn’t move away. Last week I got back to the Mill Avenue Bridges for a re-attack a little earlier with respect to sunset than the first time.

To get a deep-blue sky.

Mill Avenue Bridge at sunset

To get the sunset reflected in the water, as well as the bridge lights. Just ignore those nasty power lines.

Showing sunset reflection in water with bridge

To have a serendipitous opportunity to go for a close-to-symmetrical collage.

Collage placing bridge photos in symmetrical arrangement

To learn yet again that my eye passes over lots of things I should see. Who put those . . . what, navigational aids? . . . smack dab in the middle of my photo? Well, technically I did since I’m responsible for everything in the frame, but what the heck were the river managers thinking? Safety or somesuch, I presume: certainly they weren’t thinking about this photo opportunity. After cropping out those annoying bits, I’ve lost half of the reflection.

Showing distracting items in foreground

To discover there’s another bridge: One that was obscured by the dark on my photo-shoot the week before.

Sunset backlighting bridge in distance

To gratefully receive another bonus: In this case, a streak of fire from the serendipitous passage of a train from the light rail system.

Showing the time-lapse passage of a train on bridge at night

 

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11 Responses to Mill Avenue Bridges, Tempe – Part 2

  1. John Whitman says:

    Isabel – navigation aids are like trees. Sometimes you see the forest, but don’t see the trees right in front of you. Snipers rely on that to survive.

    During a fire power demonstration in Gagetown many years ago, my army college class watched artillery bursts and CF-5 napalm strikes way down range from the safety of the bleachers about 1.5 km away from where the bombs were bursting.
    When the demo was over, the commentator said, “Well that was all very interesting, but what you really have to worry about is a determined man with a rifle.” That’s when a sniper who had been lying in a small depression about 50 feet in front of the bleachers stood up in his camouflage suit and rifle.

  2. barbara says:

    I can see another calendar ! These are wonderful !

  3. Marion says:

    That first one is just FABulous, Isabel. The colours and light balance are just about perfect for my taste. (I love the velvety sky.)

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Marion – 🙂 Many thanks. That velvety-sky effect doesn’t last for long. I told the Big Guy that next year we might have to camp out on the beach along the Salt River so I can just pop out to take a shot when the conditions *are* right.

  4. Tom Watson says:

    I really like the second picture “very” much—the one with the red reflections in the water.
    Good stuff.
    Tom

  5. Alison Uhrbach says:

    I kind of like the power lines – just think of them as an “historical landmark”

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