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