Sharon's Week 43: A Bridge Too Far

same but different

The assignment this week came from one of my Bryan Peterson books in which he described an assignment that was given to photography students in the past:  shoot a mailbox, filling a 36 frame roll of film - go back at different times of day for different lighting conditions, vary the angle, get creative to make each of the 36 photos different from the rest.  When I first read that several years ago, I was horrified.  How on earth can you find 36 ways to photograph a mailbox?  I felt similarly anxious when I read an assignment to shoot a roll of film in the bathroom.  Tough going there, I would think.  When I told Levi what the topic was this week and asked him for ideas, he immediately chose the cats.  I dismissed that suggestion thinking that you have seen enough of our cats already.  I regretted that decision when after having chosen an outdoor location last Sunday, it rained the rest of the week and opportunities for revisiting were limited.  If only I had chosen the cats...

But my week wasn't completely off the topic of photography.  After finally making the switch from Paintshop to Photoshop, I spent quite a few hours watching tutorials to learn what this program can do and how to do it.  I still have a long way to go but I think I have the very basics now.  I am hoping to learn much more from the folks on the India tour.

So I chose the International Bridge for my topic this week.  I was out mid-afternoon last Sunday so I thought, easy, I can go back at sunrise and sunset to look at different lighting conditions.  But like I said...rain!  Yesterday was supposed to be a mix of sun and cloud so in the morning I was waiting for the sun to come out (in the meantime, I discovered that my new laptop is fast enough to use Netflix and then I discovered binge-watching).  It looked promising at about 10:30 so I headed out.  When I got to Whitefish Island, the sun was shining to the east but it was dark and grey to the west.  Five minutes after I arrived, it began to rain.  Just a light rain so I stuck around for a while and I am glad I did because the beavers were active and I was able to capture a few good shots of them.  It's amazing how the land has changed this fall...there is a huge new beaver lodge, a whole whack of land with leftover tree stumps, dragging marks in the mud and new paths down to the lake.  I wonder how big they are planning to build that thing.

Anyway, to the photos.  The first two are almost the same view but in different light - first yesterday morning while the sun was still out in the east (behind me) and second last Sunday on a mostly sunny day  .

And here is a view of just the reflection.

Here, the focus is on the black sky.

The long view.

One underneath view.

And a different underneath view.

Here is the bridge in a vertical format.

And again in different light.

I didn't love this assignment but I think that is because of my choice of subject and the grey, rainy weather.  Maybe if I had chosen the cats...

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday, Murray!.  Here's hoping the rain stops.