Auckland Harbour Bridge

[ST1]

When we were last in New Zealand in 2017 on our first full day we decided to try and get acclimatised. Or more correctly try to feel normal having arrived the previous day following two long flights with just a couple of hours lay over and a plane change in Dubai.

We chose to take a bus in to Auckland have a wonder around, stretch our legs and just chill. Having looked around the wharf and Marina areas, we booked an afternoon harbour tour. The boat trip was very relaxing and enjoyable, on the return journey boat took us under the harbour bridge prior to returning to the ferry terminal.

It was a very overcast day as can be seen by sky in both images. However we hadn't applied any sunscreen (I'll put that down to jet lag) that day and we both were sunburnt !

#1 The bridge, built 1955-1959 by the Cleveland Bridge and Dorman Long Joint Venture. It is New Zealand’s largest bridge and the one with the largest span.

The boat guide described the work that was carried out in the1960's which added four additional lanes to the original four. His version of it was that the name of the Japanese company which carried out the work to increase the lane capacity was far too difficult to pronounce, so they became know as the "Nippon Clipons".

The clip-ons can be seen on this image the additional steelwork being anchored on to the original concrete pillars.




#2 For those who were wondering what the signs are on the nearest concrete pillar. They are warnings about this sort of activity. I decided not to try it.



For anyone interested in some additional information. The following link is to an engineering resource that describes the construction of the original bridge and the subsequent modifications

LINK

[Wavelength]

Fine shots, especially one; is there more to bring out from those clouds in processing?

[xpatUSA]

Fine shots, especially one; is there more to bring out from those clouds in processing?

Nandakumar-ji,

There are many ways I'm sure. Here are two global functions:



At left, Contrast By Detail Levels (wavelets) in RawTherapee. Six sliders allow contrast adjustment, but each for a different detail size. Thus it was possible to adjust clouds without affecting the bridge ironwork.

At right, Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Expansion (CLAHE) in Fiji/ImageJ. Can be quite fierce! This example was set to 256px 'radius' but only 1.7 out of 3 max limit.

Interesting how CLAHE brings out shadow detail.

These functions can be found in other apps, I do not know about Photoshop but my GIMP has both and other methods too.

[Manfred M]

Fine shots, especially one; is there more to bring out from those clouds in processing?

This is what I refer to as an area adjustment and in this case, I use a luminosity mask to separate the sky and then the bridge from the rest of the image.

Push down the brightness and push up the contrast and the clouds come out to look more dramatic. I personally find Peter's approach works well and the clouds don't need to be pushed any harder, that is my personal taste.

On the other hand, opening up the shadow detail and pushing the clouds fairly hard gives me this:

[Jim A]

Interesting shots, Peter. I live in Auckland, fairly close to the bridge and have a shot that is pretty similar to the second one, somewhere in my archives. The activity you captured in bungy jumping, which was started by a New Zealander, AJ Hackett. I have never tried it, and now at almost 76 yrs, almost certainly won't now.

[Wavelength]

Wonderful effects.... Even though I suggested that my knowledge in such things are big zero
Of course, the original images themselves were very good...