Location: Rizal Bridge is located just south of downtown Seattle, near the international district.  As seen from the photograph above, you are treated to a breathtaking view of Seattle’s skyline along with Qwest field, Puget Sound, and the Olympics.  The bridge is located next to Rizal Park, an off-leash dog park across the street from the Amazon.com building.

When to photograph:  Sunrise and sunsets are both great shooting times for this venue.  At sunrise, you can capture warm light on the building facades, and at sunset, you can photograph the colorful sky and the red sun as it descends behind the Olympics.  The above shot was taken at sunset.  Rizal Bridge is a great location during any season, but in autumn a few of the trees paralleling the freeway turn a beautiful shade of orange.  Also during the fall months, after you’ve set your clock back one hour, the sun sets around 5:30 pm (middle of rush hour.)  Why is this significant, you wonder?  If you want to capture a plethora of traffic lights with the sunset glow, this is the perfect time.

Photography Tips: Be sure to bring along a steady tripod and a cable release.  The bridge gets a bit wobbly when large cars and busses drive by, so you’ll have to time the shot when the traffic is light to nonexistent on the bridge but heavy on the freeway.  I recommend using a wide-angle lens if you want to capture the entire scene in front of you.  The above picture was taken at a focal length of 22 mm on a full frame digital SLR body. You may want to use a grad ND filter (2 stop soft) or bracket your shots and later combine them in Photoshop to maintain detail in the sky as well as in the foreground.  Good luck!

Mahesh Thapa http://www.starvingphotographer.com/

f/64

Camera: Canon EOS 1Ds MkI I Lens:Canon 17-40 f/4 L Aperture: f/11 Focal length: 22 mm Shutter speed:  Bracketed exposures of 2, 4, and 8 seconds ISO: 100 Shooting mode: Aperture priority Format: RAW Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2