Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Take It To The Bridge


Following the near failure of my first attempt to shoot the Clifton Suspension Bridge, I returned the following week with a revised plan. Firstly, I'd decided to allow myself more time on-site. Secondly, I was going to get closer to my subject.

This was to be achieved by the simple expedient of walking down the Portway. My intention was to shoot the bridge from the east and then, if there was time, to move round to the other side and shoot from the west, hoping that might give me a better vantage point.

The east side proved to be a bust. The speeding cyclists made it impossible to set up on the narrow pavement and the only point at which there was room was too close to the bridge. In any case, the high street lights ahead of me were unavoidable in the frame and the ones behind fogged my images.

So, I decided to cut my loses and move to the west side of the bridge. That was, until I got directly underneath and found that there was a seating area with a couple of benches and a few trees. So I set up and started making images and spent the rest of my time there - the west side would have to wait for another day.

This is one of the first images that I made, of the brick buttress on the south bank of the river, surrounded by the trees of Leigh Woods.

Compositionally, the underside of the bridge was a gift. Also, in the time that I'd spent pratting about the sky had cleared and the stars had come out. Consequently, there were a few successful images from this session which I'll post shortly.

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