The Pennybacker Bridge over Lake Austin at sunset.
I was struggling a bit with the composition on this one because I liked the texture of the Cedar tree and wanted to get the base and most of the top, but I also wanted to capture the road (360) heading off to the horizon on the right - and of course the bridge. This left the horizon in the center, and a branch of the tree partially blocking the bridge (the horizon doesn't bother me as much as the branch).
After looking at this again, I might have been able to move lower to the ground and get more of an unobstructed view of the bridge. If I have time tomorrow, and we have another good sunset, perhaps I'll try this shot again.
Thanks for the kind words. I actually started shooting in another location off to the right which had an unobstructed view of the bridge. When I finished there, I packed up and started walking back and then noticed the tree, and how its jagged twisted appearance contrasted with the smooth clean lines of the bridge, yet as svassh noted, they both had an arch to them. Looking at both shots later, the bridge alone did not look as interesting to me.
Unfortunately there was a film crew setup right where I would have preferred to be for this shot (they were shooting the sunset to the right, not the bridge). They were right behind me so I couldn't back up any further. I wasn't interfering with their work, but since they were there first, I wanted to get out of their way as quickly as possible. Hence, I didn't even setup my tripod for this shot and went handheld opening the aperture to f/8 to get a safe shutter speed of 1/40 @ 24mm FL. I normally would use f/11 or f/16 for this shot, but I did not want to bump the ISO beyond 200 to get there.
I like the way the limbs echo the lines of the arch, but I think I'd rather see more of the arches themselves. Great perspective on the bride, though; the high angle is nice.
I always wanted to make it up to shoot the 360 Bridge while I lived in San Antonio!!! I never made it...Thanks for bringing me "home" with this little piece of Texas!!! Oh, and great shot !!!
I'm glad it brought back fond memories for you. I was in San Antonio last week to take a guest to the River Walk. It was Spring Break here so, as you can imagine, the river was very crowded, but still a beautiful place.
