257 - River of Dreams



Yesterday, Wednesday June 27th, had similar weather as the day before, partly cloudy, but the clouds moving low and very fast, so I decided to try my luck again. I had my tripod with me, which I normally don’t, but I wanted to work long and then probably go into the center of Vienna and shoot some architecture in twilight. When I arrived at Donauinsel, this time about an hour earlier than Tuesday, it darkened rapidly. I was just under the bridge (Reichsbrücke that is - six lanes, rather broad) when all of a sudden the wind grew stronger, the water of river Danube, that had been calm before, rose in waves, and then it began pouring.

I waited under the bridge, there was not much I could do, because the wind drove the rain almost horizontally and shooting would have been no good. It didn’t take that long. In the same abrupt way as it had begun, the rain stopped, the sun came out and I had much more of it than I had asked for. I took some images in this harsh light, and some more when the sun had just set. This is one of them.

Sigma 10-20 at 10mm, Lee ND gradient filters 0.6 and 0.9, shot from the tripod, post-processing in Capture NX and Photoshop. Some more images from this session are in my new “Riversides” gallery between here and here.

The Song of the Day is Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams” from the 1993 album with the same name. I immediately loved this song when I saw the video on MTV for the first time, and I love it still. Nice lyrics as well, and quite a good match for the atmosphere in this image 🙂


There are 2 comments

Thomas   (2007-06-28)

I don't have such a connection to shooting in the city as you seem to have - however, I might need to re-consider. Nice twin to your last picture, and a great choice for your song of the day. I should dig out those old Billy Joel classics...

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pnfphotography   (2007-06-28)

Outstanding .... what a joy to see. I wish I could shoot anything half as wonderful as you do. What color...lines... amazing!

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