Foo Photo - Sunset on 520

Sunset on 520, originally uploaded by KDavidClark.

I've driven State Route 520 hundreds of times, and if you live nearby you probably have driven many a congested mile on this four lane stretch of nerves. Most days you'll find it packed with beige Escalades or half-eaten 3/4 ton work trucks competing for a piece of tarmac.

But in the evening it's a different story.

Nights on State Route 520 are quieter and more polite. No hidden agendas about getting that much farther before merging, and no stop-n-go movement whittling down the brakes. Speeds are at or near the posted limit, and drivers are more forgiving. If I were to be assigned to 520 as a job, I would take the 8pm to 5am shift.

This photo was taken on July 2nd from the 76th Avenue overpass, looking west towards Seattle. I had just come back from taking some train pictures, and saw that the conditions were perfect to take some sunset shots too. The colors were more or less the same as you see them here. I took about twenty shots between two cameras with different lenses, varying the amount of light and shutter time. A couple of people even joined me on the bridge to see what I was doing. A lady walking her dog wanted to know how the camera worked and what I was taking pictures of. One gentleman brought out his big 450-MagoogaPixel digital camera and started shooting; I offered my tripod to him - several times - but he seemed content with taken blurry "test" photos of some sort. Halfway through my session I realized that one camera had been set with too much light coming in, which meant that the photos I took would probably look like big blown out blocks of white light. Imagine my surprise after developing the rolls that every shot was exposed well, and only one of the shots was shaky. Big relief.

Some of the photos I took that night had longer exposure times, which made the headlights and tail lights look like long lines. This one, I believe, was taken with the shutter set to be open 1/60th of a second. What I do know for certain is it was taken with a Canon AE-1 on a tripod, and a 135mm lens. "Post Production" technique (listen to me sounding all cool and professional LOL) included scanning from the negative, straightening, cropping, enhancing color, and a smidgen of sharpening using Google's Picasa program.

Let me know what you think by commenting on this post!