
Sundial Spire at Night

by Mike Lee
Title
Sundial Spire at Night
Artist
Mike Lee
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
This image captures the tall tapered pylon of the Sundial Bridge in Redding California USA at night. I liked the way the spotlight on the left of the frame mirrored the cables that suspend the bridge deck from the pylon. There were some patchy clouds overhead so I shot multiple 10 second exposures from the same camera position and blended them in post production. This gave the effect of an exposure of over a minute in length on the clouds, making them more wispy in appearance while allowing me to keep the visible stars from starting to “trail” as they would have in a single long exposure. On this evening the bridge deck was illuminated with very blue light so I processed the image with a “cool” white balance to accentuate the already prevalent blue tones.
The Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay is for pedestrian traffic and was designed by Spanish Architect and structural engineer Santiago Calatrava Valls who’s known for bridge designs featuring prominent single leaning pylons such as the one in this image. The 210 foot mast here, which points due north and leans 42 degrees forms an actual sundial gnomon and the hours of the day, calibrated to the summer solstice in Pacific Daylight Time, are marked on the ground on the northern shore of the Sacramento River which it spans. The span of the bridge of some 700 feet has no structural members touching the water, which was a design requirement due to concerns about anadromous fish migrations and salmon spawning grounds in the river below.
Uploaded
February 2nd, 2022
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Comments (54)

Antonis Meintanis
Amazing capture and POV. dear Mike !!đź‘Ť favđź‘ŚBest and creative wishes !đź‘ŚHappy New Year !đź‘Ś

Robyn King
Congratulations your fantastic art is being featured in Over 2000 Views! Please share your artwork in our featured artist archive thread for a lasting record of your accomplishment!

Steve Rich
Your work deserves to be featured in our group "The Meandering Photographer" Please consider adding this work to the "Feature History, The Meandering Photographer (March-April 2024)" active discussion thread. (l/f on 4-26-2024)

Luther Fine Art
Congratulations! Your fantastic photographic art has been chosen as a Camera Art Group feature! You are invited to archive your work in the feature archive discussion. There are many other discussions in the group where you can promote your art even further more.

Lyric Lucas
Congratulations, your creative and unique art work is Featured on the homepage of the "Out Of The Ordinary 1 A Day" group! 3/18/22 l/f

Don Columbus
Congratulations, your work is Featured in "Photographic Camera Art" I invite you to place it in the group's "2020-2022 Featured Image Archive" Discussion!

Bob Lentz
Congratulations! on this unique image’s being Featured in the NEW “Dramatic Landscape, Skyscape, and Cityscape Photographs” group on FAA. The artist is encouraged to add the image to the group’s current “2022 Feature Archive” Discussion topic.