One beautiful bridge photographed in 4 different ways!

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Last Thursday, and for the first time in quite a while, I decided to go out on a photo-walk with a couple of other Ottawa photographers. The location we chose to shoot was the beautiful Minto Bridge which crosses over the resident Rideau River.

For this blog, I thought I would write about 4 different photos which I took of this bridge over the course of that afternoon.

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1. Landscape Reflections

~ Fuji XT-2 + 10-24mm f/4 | 1/500sec | f/6.4| ISO 200 ~

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This was the first photo I wanted to share because I feel like it tells the full story of this beautiful bridge. The Minto Bridge, built in 1900, is not one, but 3 connected bridges which cross the Rideau River and allow access to 2 small islands in-between.

In right of the photo (above)and behind the bridge, you can see part of the Ottawa skyline. This is both appropriate and significant as the bridge was originally built with the purpose of connecting downtown Ottawa and Parliament to the residences of the Governor General and Prime Minister thus linking two very important parts of the city together.

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2. Searching for golden Symmetry

~ Fuji XT-2 + 10-24mm f/4 | 1/100 sec | f/11 | ISO 200 ~

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This photo (above) was one of my favorites of the day because of two specific aspects: the light and the symmetry. I've often talked about how much I love photographing at Golden Hour, the period just about 1 hour before the sun sets. In this photo, you can see how that golden light really shines on the white beams and the dark road in the middle of the bridge.

As I have also mentioned before, I am a sucker for symmetry, and these kinds of middle of the road photos are often my favorites. Its just something which our eyes are drawn to and symmetrical photos almost always seem to turn out very aesthetically pleasing in my opinion.

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3. Street Photography: A lovers stroll

~ Fuji XT-2 + 10-24mm f/4 | 1/1100 sec | f/3.2| ISO 200 ~

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Changing the scene from landscape to street photography, this photo actually ended up being one of my favorites , but for other reasons than the rest. As I was trying to capture pictures off the side of the bridge, a happy couple came strolling past me as they made their way across the bridge. I was quick to change my camera settings and captured this lovely image.

Both smiling, dressed in white and walking side by side, these two really personified the peaceful and calm aura which I felt during the 3 hours I spent walking around the bridge. Often times, photography can be less about the spectacular nature of the image, but rather the emotions which it made one feel.

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4. Sunset companion

~ Fuji XT-2 + 10-24mm f/4| 1/13sec | f/10| ISO 1250~

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Returning to the theme of spectacular images, this final photo reflects another aspect of photography which is hard to forget: Sunsets make everything awesome. This particular shot exemplifies this with the colors in the sky and the reflections in the water making it seem as though this photo of the bridge was taken on a completely different planet than the last 3.

However, beyond the stunning natural elements, its important to pay close attention to the camera settings on this particular photo and how they differ from the previous photos. In this case, with the light lowering substantially, I was forced to shoot at a much higher ISO (1250) than the rest of the photos. This allowed me to have a shutter speed (1/13 sec + Image Stabilization) which was fast enough to capture the scene without motion blur. I also photographed this photo at f/10 which was because I wanted to try and get the entire image sharp and focused.

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All words and images used in this post were created by me. Thank you for lending me your minds for a couple of minutes, please consider leaving some of your thoughts in the comments below.

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Until next time,
Tristan