Photographer's Corner...
Interview With William Valencia...
Interviewer from the Digital Secrets Team
DPS: Can you tell me where the photo was taken? Place, country…
William: This Photograph is the Mill Avenue Bridge and was taken in the City of Tempe Arizona within Maricopa County, USA. Tempe is the home of the Arizona State University Sun Devils. (A bit of history). The Mill Avenue Bridge is the oldest automobile crossing on the Salt River in the Phoenix metropolitan area, and has been in continuous use since its completion in 1931. It was the major transportation link in three transcontinental highways (U.S. Routes 60,70, and 80) and Arizona’s only north-south route, U.S. Route 89, until the freeway system was begun in the 1950s. The bridge was built to supercede an earlier highway bridge, built 1911-1913, which had become increasingly congested and was no longer able to adequately support wider and heavier vehicles. In 1928, a group of Tempe businessmen submitted a request to the Arizona Highway Commission that a new bridge be planned. The bridge was designed by the Arizona Highway Department in 1929. Ralph Hoffman, the bridge engineer for the State of Arizona, signed the contract with Lynch-Cannon Construction Company of Los Angeles, implementing Federal Project 2-B. The bridge was opened to traffic in August of 1931, but was not officially dedicated until 1933. Presiding at the ceremony was Arizona Governor B. B. Moeur, a Tempe physician.
The Mill Avenue Bridge is a ten-span poured concrete, open spandrel structure. The spans are multiple ribbed with open spandrels, each 140 ft. long, supporting a concrete roadway on beamed and webbed columns above the ribs. The ribs are designed as hingeless arches fixed at the piers. Two types of piers are used in the design and the spans are divided into groups of three, four, and three, separated by abutment piers. Abutment piers are of a typical column construction. Abutment piers are extended and carried above the roadway level in four hexagonal towers forming pedestrian rest bays with canopies. This effect is maintained with hexagonal pylons terminating the railings at each end of the bridge.
DPS: What camera and equipment did you use to attain this sharp effect?
William: I used a NIKON D300 and an AF-S 12-24mm 1:4 GED Nikkor lens with a standard UV filter and a tripod along with a remote shutter release.
NIKON D300 with AF-S 12-24mm 1:4 GED Nikkor lens, UV filter.
DPS: Nice gear. What settings did you use?
William: Camera was set to shutter priority and a 30 second exposure was taken, used a F22 stop and an ISO of 1600. S-30sec, A-F22, ISO-1600.
DPS: How did you set yourself up for this shot? Ie. Planned, on vacation, etc.
William: Was out in the evening taking sunset / landscape photographs and was on my way home and decided to take some night time shots and drove to this bridge inadvertently so I spent about an hour taking other photos here, but spent most of my time on this shot.
DPS: How did you get the reflection so crystal clear in this photo? Any secrets to share?
William: I was just there at the perfect time (8:10 pm), and the water was nice and calm. Thankfully, Tempe is not known as a windy city.
DPS: What kinds of more advanced stuff have you done with photography? (As opposed to point and shoot. Eg. High Dynamic Range, exposure bracketing, etc.)
William: I enjoy night time photography as it presents more of a challenge; I also enjoy landscape and wildlife photography and like to keep things simple and as natural as I can.
DPS: Do you prefer post editing or do you rely more on your own skill at the time?
William: I prefer my photographs to be perfect when taken, however that is not always possible, so I do at times get into Photoshop CS3 and correct the images.
DPS: What are you thoughts on post editing?
William: I do like the idea and the endless capabilities that you can achieve with an image, but prefer my photographs to be as close to nature as possible.
DPS: How did you get first get interested in photography? And did you take classes or workshops?
William: I have been proudly serving in law enforcement as a police officer since 1985. I now serve as a detective sergeant. I can remember the early days, when we (detectives) did not have crime scene specialists (they’re the guys you see solving crimes on TV). So we had to do it all. Identify, photograph, collect and preserve all evidence. It’s easy to say that I have been involved with photography since 1985. I am a Certified Crime Scene Specialist and currently taking photography classes at a local community college. Things in photography are much better now than they used to be as the digital age has arrived. I am truly enjoying my hobby, just wish I had more time taking photos.
DPS: Do you find that you need a special love of the world around us to be talented in photography?
William: I strongly agree that everyone in photography needs to truly appreciate the world we live in and its beauty and to capture the moment in a photograph. Everyone has the “eye” for finding great shots, we all just need to see the opportunity and not be rushed by everyday happenings.
DPS: What do you think are some of the most common problems that camera owners have? And how can they overcome them?
William: Well, I can only speak for myself. When I initially dove into photography again I wanted all the new toys and gadgets for my camera. I wanted the best and there is nothing wrong with that. But I was really missing the basic rules in photography. Don’t let the camera do the work; you make the camera do what you want it to do. One of my instructors asked me “Are you a picture taker? Or are you a picture maker? Which one are you?”
But I just needed to slow down a bit, take a few steps back and study the art of photography and to learn what others have achieved and how they did it. Anyone can go out and purchase a professional camera, but can they use it and use it effectively. So I stepped back and started from the very beginning and built a nice strong educational foundation and now know a bit more about photography and am always looking at other photographs for ideas or looking what all was required for that photo.
DPS: Thank you very much for your time today William. To our readers, William has kindly let us display his two other photos.
