Bridge Composition

[Doug L]

I've been wanting to go back to this old rail bridge to work on my image composition. Yesterday, it was a bit foggy. I figured that might give a bit of a mood to the images and would 'mute' the relatively uninteresting horizon. These are my three favourites. Any suggestions, especially relating to composition, are appreciated. Thanks. All are shot with a Canon XT and a 17mm lens.

14260

14262

14261

[Mad Aussie]

I like the 2nd and 3rd shots best, as they convey the height and bulk better to me. I like the city being just visible in the 3rd shot as well.

Can't really suggest too much for comp, but, in the 2nd shot, you could try a couple of extremes. 1 crouch right down and shoot from where your shins normally are and, 2, Take a small step ladder and shoot from up high. Both efforts would produce perspectives a human wouldn't normally see, so the interest would be increased.

[Doug L]

... try a couple of extremes... crouch right down ,,, and shoot from up high... produce perspectives a human wouldn't normally see, so the interest would be increased.
Thanks for the suggestions, MA. I'll keep that in mind.

[susan]

Middle shot for me. I like the 'drama' of it ... I also really like the city scape appearing ghostly within the arms of the fog.

[kevin99989]

I really like the 2nd shot because of the angles and perspective view. I also appreciate shots where things aren't exactly centered (you were off to the side of the bridge rather than the center). Too bad there were so many branches to the left side of that shot.

Shots #1 and #3 are nice too. I like the composition. I know what you're saying - I'm not sure how to improve it... Would you consider a long exposure of the water to simplify the composition (with a ND filter), and to give it a "lonely" feel, especially in the cloudy weather? Or this will make a great star trail shot at night in clear weather, especially if the bridge is not lit at night with artificial lighting...

[aubintbay]

I kinda like them all. If it was me though I'd wait for real pea-souper of a fog and go shoot it in b/w without the distraction of the city view or that other bridge in the distance so it looks like its disappearing into the fog.

[Doug L]

Thanks, everyone for the comments and suggestions.
Kevin, don't know about star trails with the ambient night-sky brightness so close to downtown Ottawa - but a shorter exposure with a few background stars is something I'll give a try.
Aubintbay, I'll definitely be going back to this site when there are more extreme weather and lighting conditions - heavy fog, snowstorms, twilight, etc.