The Best Scene

The best camera is the one that’s with you.
Chase Jarvis

Well, OK, I can see the truth in this. Of course given both the opportunity to prepare and the thought to do it I want a different lens for landscapes than for birds, but if I don’t have any camera with me, however inadequate it might be compared to hypothetical perfection, the shot is lost entirely. It’s hard to see how that’s a good thing, even if all I have is my phone camera.

Similarly, the best scene is the one that’s in front of me. Of course I appreciate iconic scenes in ideal lighting conditions and the time to find the best place to stand, but even a standard road-trip yields lots of things worth photographing, even in insufficient light and even through the car window.

Bridges, for example, at dawn and past dusk.

Two bridges - one at dawn, one at dusk.

More bridges (because, well, bridges), including twin bridges. Fraternal twins, by the look of them.

Old railway bridge seen from new bridge

Pipes at a gas station. For ventilation of underground gases? Dunno, but it made me a bit uneasy.

Four vertical pipes at gas station

Various signs at various rest stops along the interminable interstate.

Collage of signs from interstate rest areas

And, never exactly finally but the last in this series, shafts of light as the sun rises behind low-lying banks of cloud. How could you not go toward this light?

Early-morning shafts of light through low-lying clouds

 

This entry was posted in Appreciating Deeply, Laughing Frequently, Photos of Built Stuff, Photos of Landscapes and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to The Best Scene

  1. John Whitman says:

    Isabel – sorry to rain on your parade, but your fraternal twin bridges look to me to be fraternal twin bow-string trusses – one on each side of the travelled roadway.

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      John – But what about the second bridge? I think it’s a railway bridge.

      • John Whitman says:

        Sorry, my mistake. I was referring to the bridge in the right hand picture under the title, “Bridges, for example, at dawn and past dusk”. I failed to see that title the first time around.
        Dropping down one panel below that I now see what you mean. However, they are still not fraternal twins. The highway bridge uses Warren trusses for suspension. The railway bridge uses an unfamiliar to me truss system. The railway bridge trusses look sort of like a combination of two or more common truss systems that only make sense to an engineer designing railway bridges. Railway bridges have to withstand the dead load of a stopped freight train and the impact (momentum) load plus the dead load of a moving freight train so they are sometimes unique to their location.

  2. Well, thanks to John Whitman for alerting us to the differences in trusses for railway bridges and road-traffic bridges! But perhaps while he was at it he could have solved the mystery of those gas station pipes that will haunt me until I learn their purpose.

  3. barbara carlson says:

    Some lovely shots — almost makes me miss travelling.

    One wonders what happened in that restroom to elicit such a sign…

    • Isabel Gibson says:

      Barbara – I know, right? I’m sure I’ve never seen a sign about pets in restrooms. As for the rattlers, well, I prefer it when they’re clearly marking a no-go zone as opposed to just general good advice.

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