The Flooded Trinity River!

MHH Bridge Reflected in the Trinity River

My wife thinks I am obsessed with photographing the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. I do have a desire to photograph it under a variety of conditions. There is about a million different ways to shoot the bridge and I am only about half way there. I also have a separate gallery of photos of it now on my web site.
Monday night and Tuesday morning we had well over 4 inches of rain. I knew this would flood the Trinity River and provide an opportunity to photograph the bridge reflected in its swollen waters. Tuesday and Wednesday evening found me doing just that. I was more pleased with the second nights efforts. I liked the compositions better and the sky also seemed to put on a better show.
 The top image was shot first. The bottom image was shot about 6 minutes later and is a good example of why I sit in one spot and shoot different compositions as the light changes. The Bank One Tower (green building) had just turned its lights on. That is the main reason it wasn't included in the previous shot. The scene had also become darker and I needed 4 bracketed exposures to create the second version. The most interesting change was the color of the clouds. It was now 25 minutes after sunset and there was heavy cloud cover to the west, which is behind me. Within 3 minutes the clouds picked up a dull pinkish look which wasn't there just a few minutes earlier. I might be inclined to think it was some very late sunset color but I really think it was the lights of the city starting to reflect off the clouds. Thirty minutes later when it was completely dark, the clouds still had some of that color in them.

Flooded River Reflections

The last image was shot after all the deep blue had left the sky.  This was from a spot I had not shot from before. I think it made a nice addition to my collection.

MHH Bridge Arch and Cables at Night

Celebrating the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge!

I spent Saturday evening at the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge celebration. It probably is the last time I will get to shoot on the bridge without dodging cars or being hassled by the law so I was definitely wanting to take advantage of that chance. Conditions were good, giving me some warm light on the arch right before sunset. There was also a small moon which is visible in the first image. They had extra spotlights on the bridge so it became very brightly lit as soon as the sun had set. It made quite a contrast with the deep blue sky at dusk, which can be seen in the second image.

The city was going to put on a fireworks display at 9 pm. I had a rough idea where they would be shooting them from but wasn't exactly sure where I should set up in order to include the bridge and fireworks. As you can see, I guessed correctly. I actually have four or five that I really like which show different colored fireworks and different lighting on the bridge.

This last image is cropped from one of the shots that included fireworks. I wish I had a second camera shooting full frame images of just the arch of the bridge during the ten minutes of the show. The lighting and the smoke were constantly changing making for a cool variety of looks to the bridge. 

The Opening of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge...Nearly!

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

This weekend the City of Dallas will celebrate the opening of this Santiago Calatrava designed suspension bridge. http://www.mhhbridgecelebration.com This event was planned many months ago and I am sure they were committed to having the festivities even though the official opening of the bridge has been delayed until the end of March. I didn't think they would finish the roads around the bridge in time. Saturday is a free day to explore the bridge. I will be there with my camera. They have not been allowing people on the bridge and I am one of the many photographers that have been itching to get some images taken from the bridge. There is no sidewalk on the bridge and I don't think it will be a very safe place to shoot once the bridge does open for traffic.

I shot this image back in December of 2011. It was the first time I had seen the bridge with the lights on.