Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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The (Covered) Bridges of Humboldt County

Covered Bridge at golden hour
Brookwood Covered Bridge
Our theme for +The Patch - PhotogrAphy Themed CHallenge this week was Bridges. I had a couple in mind at the beginning of the week, but these were bridges I had already shot before and I was struggling with how I'd shoot them in a fresh light. I shot some and thought I was done. When I got them into Aperture and started working on them I wasn't exactly thrilled with them. They met the themes, sure, but they looked like retreads, or worse, exact copies, of shots I had already done. Actually because of the weather recently these shots were worse than the original shots I had done. Basically I would have rather submitted 2 year old photos over these.

So I asked Google if there were any covered bridges nearby. Oddly Sure enough there were three, but time and weather limited me to only getting to one of them in time for the project's deadline. Built in 1969 the Brookwood Covered Bridge is the longest of the three bridges at 66 feet and crosses Jacoby Creek. The above shot is from the south-west side of the bridge and is a 5 shot hand-held panorama. I didn't choose to use this shot as my final submission, but I'm kind of wishing I had because of the lighting. I couldn't back up enough to capture the whole bridge so I resorted to shooting a panorama which Photoshop Elements had no problem stitching. I wasn't crazy about the exposure in the sky and in the water. And I was kicking myself for not using my polarizer which might have helped on those fronts, but it's not a bad shot and I really like the colors.

Brookwood and empty Jacoby Creek
I was kind of upset that I couldn't shoot from the opposite side of the bridge. This rock island is only on the north facing side of the bridge, so the rich colors from golden hour weren't hitting this side of the bridge but instead part of the kind of annoying foliage that I wished were cut away from the left side of the above photo. I started shooting from the right side of this shot and trying to keep tips I've come across in mind started moving forward, backward, and to the edge of the creek. I varied the height of my tripod and for this shot I'm nearly as low as it would allow. I felt this angle provided the most interesting point of view. This is a seven shot HDR that I ultimately chose to use because the sky is not as bad as it is in my regular shots. Having said that, I still very much dislike the sky in the right hand corner. I had hoped I'd have another clear day to try this shot again at sunrise but thankfully rain has come again. Hopefully it fills this creek a little more.

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Running... Again?

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  If you know me you know there was a time about 10 years ago or so where I was running. A lot. At least 5 days a week and at least 5 miles a run. I wasn’t training, I wasn’t preparing for a race or a marathon. I just found myself enjoying the time spent running. I wasn’t obsessed with numbers, but I kept track of them all and liked seeing improvements in time and distances. It was good physical health and mental health. Then I tweaked my knee. Not bad enough that I couldn’t walk on it, just a tweak that told me I needed to back off of running for a little bit. So I decided on 2 weeks. At the end of 2 weeks I aborted a run very early as the pain was still there. 2 weeks became 3, became a month, became 5 years. 
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