I ran an errand in downtown Pasadena yesterday morning and parked in a lot I hadn't used before. As it was new to me, and because I need new pictures of Pasadena every day, I looked around for shots. I do it obsessively: Would that make a good photo? How would I shoot it? What angles might I try? Is the light good or should I come at a different time of day?
Et cetera, et cetera, finger down the throat, ack ack ack.
I saw a possible shot between tall buildings--a sort of Pasadena Gotham--and planned to return later. I came home and picked up Boz for a walk in Lower Arroyo Park, and took this picture of
La Loma Bridge instead.
20 comments:
Really interesting photo. If it weren't for the arch, and when you first look at it, it looks like a building.
Gorgeous contrast and color. Sometimes the shots that just come naturally are perfect.
Most of the shots I take, which are unplanned but which I thot at the time looked good, when I view them later I just want to trash.
Cafe, I know the feeling. I don't use every shot I take. But here are a couple of things you might try:
first, try to figure out why the shot didn't work. Learn from your mistakes (I like to think of them as the camera's mistakes).
Second, take time to take a lot of different shots of the same thing. I took several shots of the bridge from different angles, turning the camera this way and that. This is the shot I liked the best. The others: DELETE!
What a glorious photo, Petrea. Fabulous composition and a startling slab of unbelievably blue sky (at least to an Englishman) contrasting wonderfully with the sunlit masonry and those deliciously deep shadows.
Wow!
This is a great shot! It reminds me of a Pasadena Heritage T shirt from a few years ago by local artist Kenton Nelson. It was of the Colorado Street Bridge, but both the La Loma and San Rafael bridges are by the same architect. Soon, the La Loma bridge will be taken apart and rebuilt in the same style - it's crumbling quite badly in places now.
I always like walking this bridge on foot because the palms bellow have grown to the height of the bridge. Gives a gal a chance to go nose to nose with a crown.
It looks like something out of an architectural magazine. Your "obsessive" search for good photos really pays off.
Great use of light and shadow and line. Beautiful graphic image.
PA, I love the really tall palm there. Once saw a squirrel in the crown, at eye level to me. But for the squirrel, it had been a long climb up, a major achievement. It was as though you climbed Everest and then saw people watching you reach the top from a nearby balcony. I hope they leave that palm when they renovate but somehow I doubt it.
If you click on the link in the post you can read a little about the renovation. If all goes according to plan, it should be starting this spring and will take about a year.
The locals know, Dive, that when we look straight up our sky is very, very blue. It's a different story when we look horizontally.
Thank you for your compliments. Ibarionex, I thought of one of yours when I saw this--a red tarp against a cyclone fence. I was feeling very full of myself.
I agree, this photo is a real winner. I love the angle and the shadows. Pretty dang good I say.
Pasadena is fortunate to have so many extradinary examples of public works.
The La Loma Bridge has spanned the Arroyo Seco for 90 years and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Today it is in need of seismic repairs and historic restoration.
Design and engineering plans should be completed sometime this spring or summer, but construction is on hold until funding is in place. The estimated cost is $16.5 million, of which only $10.7 million is appropriated. Additional funding via a Federal Highway Administration grant is a possibility, but not until 2015.
In the meantime, she's a beauty that is beloved by so many, including you and me!
By the way, I have e-mailed the deputy director of our Public Works Department, asking him to have someone update that web page because it's woefully out of date.
I took the funding information in my previous comment above from the current Fiscal Years 2011 to 2015 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget that covers public works projects.
Thank you, Steven, I'll take it!
PIO, thanks to you, PDP may just be the online source for the latest information on La Loma Bridge, at least for the moment!
I do love that bridge, it's a small treasure. Even its entropified underside is a quiet adventure into the Arroyo's past.
Best word of the day (yours): entropified.
Best misspelled word of the day (mine): extradinary.
I made mine up on purpose, you made yours up by accident. I like them both.
The light and shadows are so pronounced that this one looks like a nice piece of abstract art.
Beautiful shot. La Loma brdge is one of my favorites.
Wow. This might be my favorite.
Post a Comment