Marlow suspension bridge

[Dave Humphries]

Inspired by other's bridge shots, I decided to get out and thoroughly "do" my local one.

Built between 1829 and 1832, it is still in use today, albeit with a 3 ton weight limit.
There seems to be surprisingly little detail about it on the "interweb", I believe (from the dated plaques), the pedestrian footpaths were added on each side in 1860. Last properly refurbished in the mid-sixties, it's now looking a little tired and weather worn, but is still a magnificent structure, even though it's small-fry against the upscaled version built in 1849 in Budapest, designed by the same chap (William Tierney Clark).

Such a structure makes a very good photographic subject, there are so many angles one can take; I have a few others I "fluffed" and I need to re-visit to take properly this time.

Join me as I approach the bridge, go up the left hand side, across on the footpath nearest us in first pic, reach the other side, cross the road, and return along the 'far side' footpath. As I go, I'll take shots in either direction (motto: frequently look behind you or you'll miss something).


#1: I'll start with this one, it'll give you an idea of the context.
I'm not too happy with the distortion on the left tower, although the bridge deck is level, if I shot from further away at a narrower angle than 28mm, there was just too much 'stuff' in the foreground.
1/680s @ f6.4, ISO200, equivalent focal length (efl) 28mm


Fighting the light on this one.
Moral: you can't do it all properly at once, either spend all day, or come back another time to do it justice. Work out when (time-wise) will be best while you're still there.
1/420s @ f7.1, ISO200, efl 220mm


Poorest of the lot, an unimaginitive record snap.
Moral: don't snap, think first
1/280s @ f6.4, ISO200, efl 230mm


Fighting the light again on this one, need to go back late one summer evening to get this side of tower sunlit.
1/680s @ f7.1, ISO200, efl 50mm


Ah, that's better, but what is the subject; the church or the bridge?
1/850s @ f8, ISO200, efl 28mm


And a little closer for the bridge tower, fully using those 'lead-in' lines.
1/680s @ f8, ISO200, efl 55mm (plus a PP crop)


OK, definitely the church this time, framed by the suspension swoop.
1/680s @ f6.4, ISO200, efl 28mm


Church again, framed by the southern tower.
1/800s @ f6.4, ISO200, efl 28mm


This would have worked better with a tighter crop, but I didn't notice until home that the guy in the distance just sneezed and cropped down this just had too much distraction factor.
Moral: always take more than one shot of a good angle!
1/600s @ f8, ISO200, efl 55mm


Just another sunny shot of the church and bridge.
1/550s @ f6.4, ISO200, efl 38mm


Something to convey the strength of the structure, could have done better with traffic timing though; either no cars, or one, better placed!
Moral: don't rush
1/420s @ f7.1, ISO200, efl 155mm

These were shot between 3 and 4 pm (GMT) on 21 March, I need to visit at other times of day for different sun angles.

Several had significant PP to clone away unsightly electric cables, etc. and correction for tilts and perspectives where beneficial.


No need to comment on all (there's way too many), just any you have any thoughts on; good or constructive.

I hope these provide further inspiration to others, and my 'Moral' comments expose a few of the gotchas, so you don't make the same mistakes I did.

Thanks.

[crisscross]

An interesting series Dave, dead right on looking at it a few different ways/days.

I actually like the last one best and think you may get away with the cars if you stamp out the blue one way arrow and 40mph sign

About no 8 where you have the vertical suspension hangers, they do need to be straight; I forget what PP software you use, but should be a lens correction/distortion control somewhere.

[dan88]

Wow that bridge looks spectacular. I love old bridges and churches.

I think I like number 7 the most - the church looks spectacular - especially with no cars in the way of the church. Because there's no cars in immediate view, I think it helps to keep that old look about the photo.

[Colin Southern]

Interesting spelling of "compleat" there Dave - do you know any of the history behind that?

[Dave Humphries]

I think I like number 7 the most - the church looks spectacular - especially with no cars in the way of the church. Because there's no cars in immediate view, I think it helps to keep that old look about the photo.

Ah ha, so I could clone out the modern Marlow sign and the white lines, etc., B&W convert and sepia tone it, now there's an idea I hadn't thought of - Thanks Dan.

Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Interesting spelling of "compleat" there Dave - do you know any of the history behind that?

Nope, in fact I can't even find it in my text at the moment!

It's just one of the many words my fingers get wrong, like
teh
radion (radio)

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Chris,

Yes I like that one too, something to do with the added depth provided by the trees and distant, misty, hills counteracting the compressed foreground of the bridge. this was a significant PP crop to get rid of the well blown sky.

Regarding the correction of the bars, I use PSE6 and I looked in Filter > Camera > Lens Corrections, but all I could see was vignetting and perspective, definitely not barrel/pincushion

Not sure how I could tackle it in other ways - suggestions anyone?
Free transform? - but I could make it worse overall!

Cheers,

[dendrophile]

Nope, in fact I can't even find it in my text at the moment!

Dave,

I think Colin was referring to the "The Compleat Angler" sign in your fourth photo.

Great to see lots of shots of the same subject!

Graham

[Keith]

The Compleat Angler, from Isaak Walton's day, he wrote the book 'The Compleat Angler' that has inspired many an angler to improve their angling abilities, angler coming from the word 'angle' which referred to the hook used at the end of the line.
I am an 'angler' as opposed to a fisherman, because I use an angle (hook) to catch fish instead of a fishing net used by fishermen.
Thought that might be a total useless piece of information for you

I must get out more!

Nice pictures Dave.

[Colin Southern]

Dave,

I think Colin was referring to the "The Compleat Angler" sign in your fourth photo.

Yes - just wondering why it was spelt as "compleat" rather than "complete" - a monumental mistake, or just the way they spelt it back in those days?

[Dave Humphries]

Yes - just wondering why it was spelt as "compleat" rather than "complete" - a monumental mistake, or just the way they spelt it back in those days?

Crusty's got the story and yes it was written back in the 1653 (ish) in the Marlow area and the Inn took the name of the book (spelt that way) sometime later.

.. and there was me thinking you'd spotted another of my many typos!

[Dave Humphries]

I actually like the last one best and think you may get away with the cars if you stamp out the blue one way arrow and 40mph sign

Thanks Chris, I gave it a go;

and put it in the challenge this week.

Regards,

[Roxy]

A very interesting collection Dave. Others have covered some tech issues; I fancy the concept of a group of images around the same subject, be it a small detail or large landcape. Many years ago a friend of mine won a significant competition with the title something like "six shots of the same subject" or "a six-pack".. hers was an old wooden saw-horse on a dead plain BG, using angles and light/shade for variation.
I'm interested in that part of your work flow used to bring these images into CIC gallery. Here you have eleven shots; my method of installing just one sometimes frustrates me .. 1/select image (this is after any PSE adjustments BTW) 2/ go away to upload to flickr 3/come back to CIC and upload..
shot by shot seems a pedantic route. Eleven would take me all morning!
In fact I find this process sometimes deters me from installing images at all. Am I just lazy (don't answer that!) or is there a quick'n easy way to deal with this?
I wonder how others in the group get their pictures in?
Roxy.

[Dave Humphries]

I'm interested in that part of your work flow used to bring these images into CIC gallery.

Hi Roxy,

Well I do them all together at each stage, so;
1) PP them all (ACR+PSE6), at same time producing a full size and a 1024 width reduced shots, each with own final sharpening and saved on my HDD.

2) Log on to (in my case) PBase. For a larger series like this I might first put all pics in a Windows compressed folder and upload all in one go. PBase automatically uncompresses them and creates all the thumbnails etc.

3) Log in here and with PBase open in one tab and CiC in another, just copy and paste the direct linking URLs from one to the other, adding the EXIF below each picture here myself.

With practice the last bit can be got down to less than a couple of minutes per picture, probably the same for step 2 if done individually, much less if "all in one go" because you can go do something else while it's uploading.

The PP in step 1, well that takes as long as it takes, it was a few hours for these 10/11 pics. each one was a learning experience.

Thanks for the kind words about the pics.
Doing several of one subject does make you think, and as you say, can be rewarding.

Cheers,