Photo of the Week 2024-10-07

Recently, day two in Scotland had us picking up a rental car and navigating our way out of Edinburgh (a story in itself) to the Battery Road Bridges Viewpoint in North Queensferry. All three of the bridges, The Forth (rail) Bridge. The Forth Road Bridge and the Queensferry Crossing are something to see. As a retired Civil Engineer, my interest in what we build remains keen and I was particularly eager to make this stop at the base of the Forth Bridge because of it's historical and engineering significance some of which which can be read via this link.

 

Worth singling out is that the Forth Bridge, once the longest single cantilever span bridge in the world, is a Scottish icon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and today, second longest to the Quebec Bridge which I intended to visit again with sufficient time to photograph (spoiler alert: potential future blog post).

 

' Forth Bridge '

Following my intention, as laid out in a previous post, to look for something a little different, something creative and unique to my vision in "Photography When I Travel", I created the image above. Getting close to the north support base, I was able to use an ultra-wide focal length to capture this powerful composition. Of all the images I made during the brief stop we had on Battery Road, this is my favourite.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-08-01

 

On our 5th day in Scotland, we departed Edinburgh for Dundee. Before crossing the Firth of Forth, our tour stopped at the Forth Bridges Viewpoint and during an all too brief opportunity, I hurried about attempting to do the sights justice ...

 

' The First over the Forth '

I was very pleased to be successful in capturing 6 handheld frames that would merge into the above panorama of The Forth Bridge (sometimes referred to as "The Forth Rail Bridge" to distinguish it from "The Forth Road Bridge").

' Fourth Road Bridge against the Queensferry Crossing '

I quickly worked to find a decent composition that would include elements of both road bridges.

 

' Inchgarvie under the bridge '

 

My research tells me this is Inchgarvie or Inch Garvie, a small, uninhabited island in the Firth of Forth. On the rocks around the island sit four caissons that make up foundations of the Forth Rail Bridge.

 

' Forth Road Bridge '

The Forth Road Bridge reopened in February 2018, after being closed for repair and refurbishment. It is now designated as a dedicated Public Transport Corridor, with access to motor vehicles other than buses and taxis restricted.

' Queensferry Crossing & Forth Road Bridge '

After successfully merging several images into a panorama of the rail bridge, I decided to crop this single frame to similar effect for this pair.

' Holy Cables Batman ! '

Elements of the newer Queensferry Crossing intersect with those of the Forth Road Bridge.

' Approaching the Forth '

This frame captured one of the local commuter trains on the south approach to the Forth Bridge main spans.
 

After feeling very rushed and uncertain of what I was able to capture in a short amount of time, I ended up being quite happy with the results once I could work in Lightroom and Photoshop to stitch and process the individual frames. The lead panoramic image of The Forth Bridge is my particular favourite and somewhat of a surprise, a welcome one, given the few minutes I had to get situated and grab all of the shots. The Forth Bridge had the longest cantilever bridge span in the world until the Quebec Bridge was completed in 1919 - I see a trip to photograph the Quebec Bridge in my future :-)

 

Soon to follow on my flickr, Facebook and Instagram feeds are a couple of vintage images of The Forth Bridge ... stay tuned.

DJE