Another new location for me except this one is really close to home just off one of my usual cycle routes. I’ve always liked how the viaduct sits in the landscape but had assumed being lazy and not checking a map that it was not possible to get close. Earlier this week whilst looking at the map for other reasons I noted a short footpath runs alongside the River Wharfe so this morning headed down at 5:30 (horrible hour on a Sunday!).

The river was virtually mirror still with tendrils of mist rising from its surface giving a good reflection of the arches in the water. However I had the sun rapidly rising in the shot (need to learn to plan round this) and it was a bit too cloudy giving light that was nothing special but I could practice the composition and deploy two tricks to cheat the conditions.

My recent purchase of the big stopper allowed me to take a long exposure and give some blurring of sky and water (plus the swans which refused to leave the frame), the second strategy was to take three bracketed images over and under exposed by one stop and combine later in HDR.

F7.1, 25 seconds with Lee Big Stopper

HDR of three images at F11