Where is the time going? To Old Bridges and Superbowl 49!

Wow - it's been almost a month since I last posted! It's kind of like Outdoor Photographer magazine when they take a month off. Although, when they do create a new issue they get paid for it!
 
So what have I been up to? Well, mostly non-photography stuff. We had Christmas and then were sick with some kind of flu or cold. My wife still has it, about 6 weeks into it now! She's seen our doctor who hasn't been able to diagnose it fully yet, and my wife's taking some kind of drug.
 
I've only been out twice to take some pictures.
 
I learned one thing, again, and hopefully it'll stick this time.
 

Gillespie Dam Bridge

 

Gillespie Dam Bridge

My lesson came from going out to shoot some pictures of a historic bridge near a broken dam in Arizona, the Gillespie Dam Bridge.
 
I'd seen some pictures of it and it looked interesting to me. Here's a color shot of the bridge from the west end looking east. I shot these in the early morning. I'd actually hoped to get there before sun-up so that I could see if the spot was remote enough to shoot stars without the Phoenix city light noise getting in the way.
 
This bridge was the longest in Arizona for some time, at about 1,700 feet long. The Gila river flows under it (yes, there is actually water in the Gila River or at least there was when I visited the bridge). There was a lot of water fowl and not much traffic so you can actually take shots like this from sitting in the middle of the road without much worry of getting run over. It felt good to get out with my Nikon D610 and my dog. And to top it off, I used my 50mm f/1.8D prime the whole day. I actually enjoyed being forced to walk around a bit to compose my pictures.
 
We'd gone down Arizona 85 and then turned off near the Lewis Arizona State Prison and drove north west to the bridge on Old U.S. Highway 80. When we were done, we (and by we I mean my dog Elmer and I) continued along Highway 80. Not too many miles from the bridge I spotted an old abandoned truck on the side of the road. I decided to take some pictures because I thought I could print some and make a nice collage print for the house.
 

Retired Dodge

 

Retired Dodge

This truck was pretty much in the open although there was some shrub on the passenger side. I really liked the rusted body, the overall condition, and that I could get shots from a lot of angles. There were only a few shots where I had to compose such that the background objects were hidden by the truck (a house, some road signs, etc.
 
Overall I liked my shots and I liked the prints EXCEPT for the problem I had, and the lesson I hope I've learned. Looking at the picture on the right you may not notice any problems, and I didn't either. Until I printed it and tried to frame it. The top is cropped so close that I had to really work to get it mounted to the matte so that the top of the trucks frame (behind the passenger side door) wasn't cut off.
 
Lesson: If you plan to print a picture make sure you leave some room for the cropping that will occur when you matte it or even if you get an exact frame size - you probably need at least 3/16" all the way around.
 

Superbowl XLIX

University of Phoenix Stadium - Glendale, AZ

I live about 10 miles from the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ, where the NFL Superbowl is being held this year (February 1, 2015).

I got the idea to go out to try to take some pictures at night, and went at about 12:00 AM on 1/24/2015, the day before the Pro Bowl.

I got a few pictures but the security chased me off. They weren't horrible and I know they're just doing their job but as you can see, I was quite a ways from the actual building. Oh well.

When that didn't pan out, I ended up driving back out to the Gillespie Dam Bridge to see if it was a good place for shooting stars. I didn't like it and didn't end up taking any. The sky was mostly overcast anyway. There may have been an interesting shot of Orion's Belt but I didn't bother with it at the time. I'll maybe go back for a star shot but the Superstitions are better and are about the same with respect to the Phoenix lights.