Our sixth bridge painting started from a completely different angle and had three unique challenges: Tuesday, Two sides, and Technology. I often ask myself, “Will there ever be a time we can roll up to a bridge and just shoot it?” Maybe after shooting two-thirds of them; currently we’re only one-third of the way there.
The first challenge: shooting on Tuesday. Brenda was traveling out of state on Wednesday, so we moved the regularly scheduled bridge shot from Wednesday to Tuesday. Knowing that this might disrupt some folks schedules we opted for a small bridge. Little Harbor Brook Bridge is the smallest of the carriage road bridges (Jordan Pond Dam is equal in length). If we had a smaller gathering, we would still be able to paint the bridge. This part of the plan worked out as expected, we had 11 bridge painters – thankfully enough to paint both sides of the bridge.
The second challenge: painting two sides of the bridge. As discussed in the recon mission post, I wanted to capture both walls of the bridge, something we’ve never tried before. Just like the recon shot, I extended the tripod by taping our hiking poles to the tripod legs with gaffers tape. But no one was willing to hike a seven foot ladder into the woods for 3.5 miles (in and back), though Tom and Cort carried a step stool. With the camera extended about 8 feet above the ground, I knew there was no way I could: look through the view finder, make adjustments and review the shots. It was time to pull in some technology.
The third challenge: introducing a tethered laptop to camera. The night before I was evaluating different software for the iPad and laptop, downloaded an iPad app that required WiFi – that’s not happening in the middle of Acadia National Park. Finally, found some tethering software by Nikon that would work. Now we’ve added another piece of equipment, a laptop, to bring to each location. It was a real joy to adjust the camera setting on the laptop and view the images on the 15-inch screen, rather than the back of the camera’s 3-inch screen. I was able to identify lighting corrections with greater detail.
The before shot.
I was told that when I was trying to guide folks in directing their lights by saying, “A little higher, just to the left, more to the left, okay now down a bit, that’s it right there!” Folks on the other side of the bridge couldn’t see what was going on, but they sure thought I was getting my back scratched. That’s a hoot! Challenges not withstanding, we were able to light both walls of the bridge creating the image below. A big thanks to the light painters, both the 4 new painters and the veterans. A big congratulations to Barbara who joined us as a light painter, only days after finishing the Appalachian Trail and breaking the record as the oldest female through-hiker. She started hiking on March 3rd in Georgia.
The light painters group shot. I got to paint the bridge for the group shot.
We all enjoyed lemon squares baked by Brenda. I forgot to bring the photo to raffle. I was a bit distracted with the new addition of a laptop in the shoot. Brenda and I did the drawing at home that evening and Linda won the West Branch print.