After Hours

Parting Shot

Harold Davis knew planning was essential if he hoped to turn a pre-visualized image of Bixby Bridge, some 24 miles south of Carmel, California, into a realized photo—especially considering the available vantage points. “Not falling off a cliff is a real consideration,” he says.

Harold set out to photograph before sundown. “If you’re going to do car trails, you need a pretty slow exposure. I figured I needed 30 seconds, so it had to be dark enough to reasonably do that.”

He spent about an hour photographing on the other side of the bridge. “There’s a photo that came out quite well that shows the view from the other angle, looking through the bridge at the Pacific. At the point when the light was right, I moved to this side, where I’d scouted a place to stand. There’s a sheer drop nearby, and I wanted to be sure I knew exactly where I’d be and where I’d have an unobstructed view.”

The spot he picked was secure, but not level. “That can be tricky, especially at night,” he says, but a spirit level in the ball head of his Gitzo tripod and a headband flashlight solved the problem. “Light trails with cars are hit or miss,” he adds. “You’ve got to do more than one to get it right; I took about ten exposures.” He made this image with a D300 and an AF-S DX Zoom-NIKKOR 12-24mm f/4G IF-ED. The exposure was 30 seconds at f/5, ISO 100. Thick fog added to the photo’s atmosphere.