A view I never get tired of, the swivel railroad bridge in Dubuque, Iowa. I made the picture a week ago, when the bridge was open for the barge traffic on the Mississippi River. A “spot light” by the low sitting sun onto the swivel part of the bridge, combined with some lovely clouds, made me push the shutter release button. The photo is pretty much what I saw, with just a little bit of dodge and burn at the cloud reflections on the water. This slight touch in post process reveals what I really had in mind when I took the photo. I know, this classic view has been photographed by many before, including myself. I just couldn’t resist to add another picture… 😉
TWO NICE ONES
Swing bridge across the Mississippi River between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois
The Canadian Pacific Railway, who operates the rail traffic across the bridge between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois, has some of the ugliest looking engines in our area. Most of them look very old and worn out. One reason why I hardly make pictures anymore of their trains.
Last weekend I made my usual stop at the railroad bridge and within a minute I heard a train slowly approaching, going eastbound. Big surprise, the train was pulled by two nice looking, fire-truck-red painted engines. A perfect scene with the blue sky above and some blue reflections on the water of the Mississippi. The trains cross the bridge very slowly, giving the photographer plenty of time to crank out a number of shots. The barge traffic on the river is just about to resume but during the winter trains are the most important means of transportation for grain, ethanol, coal, and other goods in the Upper Mississippi Valley.
If you missed my photo of the 115-year old swing railroad bridge two weeks ago, here is a direct link back to the previous blog post.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4, @66 mm, @1/640s, f/8, ISO100
MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2021 #2 - A FAVORITE
115 years old swing railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois
You may have seen photos of this old railroad bridge here in my blog before. No wonder, any time I head south along the big river to Sabula, Iowa’s only town on an island, I have to stop and take a look at this nice piece of engineering. This single track swing bridge between Iowa and Illinois was opened in 1906. It hasn’t lost any of its charm to me and is still one of my favorite men-made subjects for a photo along the Mississippi River.
Last weekend the ice started melting around the bridge and made for a more interesting foreground than at other times before. I put my only manual focus lens, the Zeiss 35/f2 on the camera and set the picture control of the D750 to Monochrome mode. I always shoot in RAW and if I would change my mind later, a color image can still be extracted from the recorded data of the RAW file. But setting the picture control to ‘Monochrome’ allows to view the results immediately in black and white on the screen of the camera.
Nikon D750, Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35 ZF, 1/160 s, f/11, ISO100
LONG SHADOWS ON ICE
Mississippi River, Dubuque, Iowa
The railroad bridge in Dubuque across the Mississippi River has been my subject many times before over the years. Usually I like to get a little closer to the bridge and have a more compressed effect, but the fast moving clouds and constantly changing light made me aim for a different kind of image last Sunday. Joan pointed out the long shadows of the arches on the ice and I reframed what I saw in the viewfinder to have them all in the photo. Snow and ice are melting rapidly at the moment and I’m almost sure the same picture can’t be made for a while…
A FAVORITE SUBJECT
Railroad bridge across the Mississippi between Sabula, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois
Almost any time I drive south from the Green Island Wetlands to the little island town of Sabula, Iowa, in the middle of the mighty Mississippi River, I take a picture of the railroad bridge that crosses the big river. It is one of my favorite subjects along the river.
According to the bridge documentation on historicbridges.org , this is an unaltered example of a historic railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. Nearly all the historic railroad bridges on the Mississippi River are at a general risk for demolition or severe alteration. The bridge has a variety of pin-connected truss designs, and most noteworthy has a 365 foot (111 m) swing span. The engineer in my blood gives me always a great pleasure to look at this wonderful bridge and I see it almost as a duty to capture this interesting piece of our historic heritage whenever I have a chance. I’m afraid the day will come and “new economists” will win the claim that it is less expensive to built a new bridge than rather preserve the historic structure and find the money to built a parallel solution that can keep up with increasing loads and traffic. The old road bridge, 2.8 miles up the river, was blasted away not very long ago and is lost forever. I think my worries are not unreasonable…
Photographically it was not a big challenge, although with a blue sky it is easy to make a boring picture. A few flurry clouds and using the highlights on the turbulent water in front of me brought some dynamic into the frame. The color contrast between the bridge and all the blue does the rest…
ON THE OLD RAILROAD PATH
Heritage Trail, old railroad path near Durango, Iowa
Another picture from yesterday’s walk on the Heritage Trail in the Little Maquoketa River Valley. The photo from my last blog post was made way in the back behind the couple on bicycles, on the bridge that crosses the river. In the old days when the railroads were built they tried to keep the tracks as straight as possible and blasted away some of the rocks and bluffs that were shaped by the river a long time ago. These hollows make some nice and shady spots on the trail that have a micro climate and can be interesting for finding plants, birds, and critters.
As mentioned in my last blog post, I tried out a new GND filter and even in a situation like this it helps to manage the high dynamic range of the scene.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4, Breakthrough 2-stop X4 GND filter
‘ROMANCING’ A RAILROAD BRIDGE
Mississippi River, Swivel-Railroad bridge, Dubuque, Iowa -----
Some of my favorite subjects for architecture photography are the bridges across the Mississippi River. Unless it is a totally new subject that I haven’t shot before, there has to be a certain quality of light before I consider to take the camera out of the bag. This happened one evening earlier this month at the swivel railroad bridge in Dubuque. I had never made any close photos at the north side of the bridge and discovered just recently the access for this shooting location.
By the way, these bridges are a great subject to become familiar with new gear, like cameras, lenses, or teleconverters. Learning about depth of field, light fall off, sharpness, etc. in a controlled environment, but still with an interesting subject in front of the lens, is priceless (beats test shots in the backyard by far 😊).
This photo is another try to ‘romance’ my landscape photos with Macphun’s Luminar software. I still have a tear in my eye because the good old NIK collection is on it’s way out, but any time I gain more experience with Luminar I love it a little more. It is intuitiv for someone who has worked with Adobe Lightroom and NIK before, but I can see why it might be a little overwhelming in the beginning for someone who is new in post processing their images. There are a lot decisions that can be made how to process an image and I will be the first one to admit, overdoing it is very easy…
MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2017 #2 - DUBUQUE RAILROAD BRIDGE
Nikon D750, Nikkor 16-35mm / f4 ---------
This is the railroad bridge over the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. The photo was made during a little river walk on the first day of the year with family and our grandkids. At the end of the bridge is the only railroad tunnel in Illinois, only a quarter mile long. I have tried this shot many times before over the years and never was totally satisfied with my results after reviewing it on the computer screen. This time most leading lines have some light that intensifies them and even the clouds point in the same direction. The shadows of the rivets on the right hand side of the bridge tell you exactly where the sun was located. A shot like this can only be made with the same outcome at this time of the year.
The bridge is almost 150 years old, still in use, and has been a favorite subject of mine any time I go on the river walk and since we live in the Dubuque area.
CLOUDS AND COLORS
This shot was not difficult to make. The train was parked aside from the main track. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the nice clouds I may have skipped this one. The blue of the sky and the red of the engine in combination with the puffy clouds drew my interest. There is constant train traffic in the Mississippi Valley but most engines look kinda worn out and are not so photogenic anymore but this one is still a beauty. The bridge in the background helps to tell the story, even if the Mississippi is not part of the picture. The same scene without the clouds and just a plain blue sky would have had a lot less impact. In this case I probably would have moved in a bit closer to keep much of the sky out of the frame. As so often, the clouds made the difference…
MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORIES 2015 #4
During my wildlife spotting tours along the Mississippi I visit frequently Sabula, Iowa’s only island city. Beside the road bridge and causeway that connects Sabula and Savannah, Illinois there is also the Sabula Rail Bridge. This wonderful single track swing bridge was opened in 1906. During the winter, with no barge traffic, the bridge was always open for the railroad. Last weekend I saw it in its other position, open for the boats. Both sides of the pivot point are navigable. The swing span of the bridge is 364 ft (~111 m) long.
The photo shows also that the Mississippi is relatively clear at the moment. The water we see is mostly from the snow melt up north and therefor not so muddy as after heavy rain sometime.