I believe the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges in the world so I declined to photograph it in it's location. Fortunately with this image I think I got a poster type feel of the bridge. and I hope my processing goes some way to enforcing that effect...
Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 Paul Abbott
Paul,
San Francisco is a crossroads within the USA cultural groups and to the world. The Golden Great Bridge is the most photographed bridge on the planet, my friend and so it's tough,really tough to get an original angle. But you can do it. In fact in my own pictures I think I myself have been influenced by your style of shooting monuments from unique and intimate angles.
This bridge is really an engineering marvel and amazing to think that one can reliably suspend such a magnificent mind-blowing immense structure, just by cables! But then, most qualities of physics start out on a local level with minute forces and strains that we take for granted, as nature scales them up a billion fold in building creatures that move and jump and even dance!
The bridge to me is a massive symbol of freedom of movement - traffic, bicycles, people and ideas. it is also esthetically stunning Yet it does not mar the landscape of the San Francisco Bay. Like a treasured spouse, it is maintained, monitored and supervised 24 x 7!!! There are more than 2 dozen painters just for touching up the acrylic paint that protects the steel from the elements!!!
In a way,the Golden Gate Bridge has a social
value akin to a cup of black tea in the U.K.!
Like my tea, this Bridge serves as both a
"necessity" at certain times of day and also
as a respite for any issue that comes up!
In San Francisco it works to sort out vexing problems in the head, the engagement of your 17 year old daughter to a divorced man with 3 kids and a reversal in one's career. Folk walk on the bridge, at dawn with the span suspended in mist, with the wind in their face, in sunshine, at night and even in the rain! Some how, that long walk is therapeutic like a good nights sleep or a "cup o' cha", (=English tea with milk in the cup first!). Both work when one is alone and also with company, even if they don't utter a word. The elements of the bridge, it's scale, stature and feeling of a paradox of permanence and vulnerability, help us reset out mental states and refresh us. It does not take problems away, but helps to put away a lot of angst so we can greet the next days unknown challenges.
So, I am drinking an extra large cup of superb
PG Tips tea, as a toast to both you and your family and wish you especially good times now your are back at your home base!
Asher