Don Stouder
About the Image(s)
I understand that often the best photos tell a story. Generally mine do not clearly do that. This month my submittal does that at least to me. It is of the Vencent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, CA. This bridge connects the mainland San Pedro to Terminal Island in the LA Harbor. It also is a prime route to Long Beach. The LA Harbor is one of the business harbors in the US. And on a normal day, this bridge is crossed by tens of thousands of cars.
In the photo, which was taken on a Saturday afternoon there virtually no cars or trunks anywhere to be seen. On the previous Thursday, a truck overturned and its load of Li batteries exploded and caused a fire. The bridge had to be closed down and remained so on Saturday.
The shot was taken with my new DJI Mini Pro 4, which I love. It is one of the multiple shots taken as part of a 360-degree panorama.
Photo Data:
Mini 4’s FC8482 camera
1/5000 F/1.7
ISO 100
-.7 EV
The photo was taken at about 200 ft. AGL
I did not upload the original, because it is virtual identical.
However, I have included a link to another photograph of a 360-degree panorama of the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro. Much of my drone photography consists of these types of images.
https://momento360.com/e/u/629746fd8b1d461d8469993f90ff3b91?utm_campaign=embed&utm_source=other&heading=0&pitch=0&field-of-view=75&size=medium&display-plan=true
This round’s discussion is now closed!
11 comments posted
I like this image, but a couple of things... the sky should have a bit more breathing room above the bridge tower and cargo container lifts. You could even fix that in Photoshop by adding a bit more canvas at the top and filling it in with content-aware fill. Also, the main subject here is the empty highway leading to the bridge, and most of the cargo containers on the left are distractions. They are also leaning to the left in the picture, which brings more attention to them. I would crop the left side at the edge of the highway on the left. That would also remove the brownish bare area on the bottom left, and give a nicely angled line of the highway through the image more predominance. A square aspect ratio would work well here.   Posted: 10/07/2024 19:43:35
Also, going to a portrait mode would allow trimming some of the containers on the left you suggested..
  Posted: 10/07/2024 20:46:38
Unless you wanted it photo-realistic, a red car cloned into the foreground would have worked nicely :-)
The curve of the road to the right is nice.
Cropped vertically, a little more sky, and some sort of foreground object and this scene would absolutely pulled viewers into it.
Do you remember "carmageddon" when the 405 was closed for 48 hours to rebuild the Mulholland hwy bridge?! Would have been an image like this one   Posted: 10/08/2024 23:26:52
Your image has good exposure, focus, and post processing but it falls short on composition. A great shot for bridge as subject, is to wait for a large container ship to pass under the bridge and make the shot as close to the bridge as possible.. I'm planning such a shot at Port Newark (NJ) and to help with the timing, there are apps for the phone that track all ships in the world real time, you'll know when a ship approaching before actually seeing it.   Posted: 10/10/2024 23:20:39
I agree, that would certainly make for a more interesting shot. My goal was to document the fact that no cars were on the bridge or the ramp leading up to it. That is pretty rare for a bridge that normally has thousands of car traffic per day.   Posted: 10/11/2024 00:27:54
I hope you enjoy your new drone and keep on using it!   Posted: 10/27/2024 21:10:13