Bridge Over Troubled Waters

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1

Bridge-Over-Troubled-Waters-DJI_0053MP3XL.jpg
Bridge-Over-Troubled-Waters-DJI_0053MP3XL.jpg2000×1500 2.81 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I’m doing a sort of repeat of my Oregon trip last year but this year I started in Eugene, drove to Medford and then got up to Crater Lake all day Sunday. Today I drove across California 96 from Yreka to Eureka and then on to Garberville via the Avenue of the Ancients. I was pretty much just scouting today with hopes of doing a more thorough examination tomorrow on my way to Harris Beach in southern Oregon. Last year I managed to pull a bonehead and crashed my drone 3 days into the trip. Thus my return to take care of unfinished business.

Of course drones are prohibited in National Parks which is a shame but considering some of the stupid stunts drone flyers pulled a few years ago it’s understandable. Today though I came across this scene on the Avenue. It’s at a site named Dyerville on the Eel River. Apparently, this had been a fairly thriving community but there was a catastrophic flood in 1955 (19 feet of water rise in 1 hour!) that carried the entire town away. No vestige of it remains except for this railroad bridge. Today the river looked anything but threatening but as we have seen in North Carolina recently floods are inexorable completely devastating.

Specific Feedback

I’m continually impressed with the image quality of this little camera. If only its pilot was as competent.

Technical Details

DJI Mini 3 Pro
ISO 100, 1/800 @ f1.7, CPL

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2

Very neat, Bill. I kind of wish the deep shadows weren’t so pronounced, but this image certainly tells a story. That huge riverbed with the little stream down it means it does get a lot of water at times.

Did you fly your drone down the tracks and through the trestle? That would make some awesome video and stills.

3

Cool perspective of the old bridge and the Eel River Bill. I love the California redwood country and the Avenue of the Giants is incredible. As @Dennis_Plank stated, it is sobering to think how big that riverbed is against what water is there now. I remember hearing stories from my mother about the Eel River flood that wiped out several small towns in that area, and we had a family friend whose ranch was devastated, losing cows and barns and all kinds of things.