Middle of the river

[Joseph O'Neil]

Not a specific place per se, but this year our river in the middle of town is very, very dry, and for the first time I can remember, I am able to walk into the middle with dry feet.

What I did notice however is I am able to setup and photograph the downtown of my city from an angle, a point of view that locally I haven't seen before. So last night, about two and half hours before sunset, with the sun right at my back and downtown lite up just perfect, at least for me, I was able to drag my 4x5 into the middle of the river and do about 16 shots of downtown.

Hopefully this drought will never hit again, or at least never this bad, but for future years, I'll now have an angle of my city that will be a bit unique.

One other thing I did was take my digital SLR along, with the gps attached, and I matched my film shots with digital, so that I'll have a record of when and where I took them.


So I am thinking for those of you looking for a unique perspective to shoot from, I imagine many of you have dry or nearly dry riverbeds in your area, and you too might be able to take some shots that in normal circumstances would never come about.
Good luck
Joe

[John Brady]

This is kind of the opposite situation. I have been going to the Suwannee River Valley for a couple of years now. I have found some beautiful areas off the river that were usually bone dry, although still beautiful I thought if there was only some water to simplify the scene. This year the Suwannee reached it's third highest level on record after an early season tropical storm let loose on the area. I had to make a couple trips back to this area waiting for the water level to go down some. It was still chest deep when I made this image.

Camera- Chamonix 5x8, Film- Kodak Ektar, Lens- SA 72xl, 2 sec f45

www.timeandlight.com


9 by John Brady Photography, on Flickr

[Joseph O'Neil]

This is kind of the opposite situation. I have been going to the Suwannee River Valley for a couple of years now. I have found some beautiful areas off the river that were usually bone dry, although still beautiful I thought if there was only some water to simplify the scene. This year the Suwannee reached it's third highest level on record after an early season tropical storm let loose on the area. I had to make a couple trips back to this area waiting for the water level to go down some. It was still chest deep when I made this image.

-snip-

Makes me want to go there for a day or three. *sigh*

Here's what I was doing. Apologies - from my DSLR, but you can see my Tachihara in the foreground. I used my small tripod than normal, as it was a four foot drop to the riverbed from the stone retaining walls along the riverbank, and my two full sized tripods are a bit brutish in some situations to carry around.

I may go back again while the light is still good. Right now, about 5 to 6 pmish local time, (this shot was closer to 7 pm I think), the sun shines directly along the path of the river. I find planning ahead where the sun will be for your shot is sometimes half the battle right there.

joe

[h2oman]

That's fabulous, John.

[John Brady]

Thanks h2oman!

[Bill_4606]

This is kind of the opposite situation. I have been going to the Suwannee River Valley for a couple of years now. I have found some beautiful areas off the river that were usually bone dry, although still beautiful I thought if there was only some water to simplify the scene. This year the Suwannee reached it's third highest level on record after an early season tropical storm let loose on the area. I had to make a couple trips back to this area waiting for the water level to go down some. It was still chest deep when I made this image.

Camera- Chamonix 5x8, Film- Kodak Ektar, Lens- SA 72xl, 2 sec f45

Thank you for your comment "water to simplify the scene" .
I've never thought of using water quit like that though in looking at several of my own photos I realized that was exactly what I did. I then started thinking about what else have I subconsciously used to simplify a scene....
you've given me a lot to think about.
Bill