Phaeton Photo Shoot - Weyerhauser Bridge at Night

This is a spot I've had my eye on for a while now. It's a two-lane bridge over rail road tracks that leads down to a train yard, and that's about it. It's lightly lit with street lamps along one side, and is always pretty lonely. I started looking for these types of photo locations soon after I got my camera, since one of my main interest is automotive photography. I've got a couple other spots lined up, but this one just really stuck with me. I thought being able to park on the roadway under one of the street lamps would make for an awesome shot.

So a couple days after my summer-readiness polish and wax job on the Phaeton, after everyone was asleep, I grabbed my camera gear and headed out. I spent about an hour on that bridge, only having two trucks cruise by, neither one giving me any trouble. For me, this is like my first real photo shoot, so I wasn't really sure what I was doing when I got there. Luckily, it didn't take long before I was in the groove of things. I was able to move the car a couple times, and get multiple shots from all angles with varying settings, and finally utilize my tripod.

Once I had a few dozen shots I decided to head in. At home, I loaded the images in to Lightroom for a quick review. What I found is that this bridge had much more to offer up than I originally realized. There was so much depth, and details that I hadn't even noticed when I was there. The skies were amazing, with a couple shooting stars even gracing my shots.

Even though it was late and I had to work the next day, I couldn't help but do some quick post-processing on at least one shot before heading off to bed. It was so easy to bring out all the beauty that was there with me. I was amazed. Over the next couple days I took some time each night to process more of the photos and learn some more tricks in light room. I was able to try out different settings and values for varying styles. One or two are probably a bit over-processed for some, but I'm very pleased with my results.

I'll definitely be returning.