Lána Bus

I seem to have managed to miss weekend posts here for a while now, so to break the pattern and ease myself back to 7-day posting (which is the plan) I’m finally promoting this shot from the ‘draft posts’ list, where it has been for the last couple of weeks.  This photograph is about the widest I shot of the Samuel Beckett bridge just about two weeks ago – a shoot where high hopes were dashed (in all but one case at least) by a bland sky and what turned out to be a difficult structure to photograph.

I had half a reason to drive over the bridge earlier this week (not an easy thing to do as it turns out – figure out how you can actually drive over it, that is) and it encouraged me to definitely return to the bridge for an evening time shoot.  The bridge looks stunning by day, but more so by night when it is illuminated, and I have a few (probably clichéd) ideas of shots to try to get some evening soon.

At the moment I reckon the best time of day to photograph the bridge is about 5.30pm or so.  Of course this will change as time goes on and the evenings get longer, but for one of the shots I have in mind (featuring light trails from cars – as I said: clichéd) a rush-hour shoot would be ideal.

The “best time of day” is, of course, determined by what it is you want the photograph to achieve, but for me I’m looking to be able to balance the artificial lights of the bridge, the surrounding buildings (which I noticed last week on my drive are well lit and quite aesthetic), and the natural ambient light.  Dawn or dusk is the best time to achieve this, and dusk probably makes for a logistically easier photoshoot, although dawn would have the benefit (though, perhaps also greater technical challenge) of a sunrise in the background (though I guess that depends on where I shoot from, but for what I have in mind I’ll be shooting facing generally east.

Whenever I get there for this shoot, I might also try to squeeze in a still night/portrait combo at the same location.  You and I both will have to wait and see how these shots work out.