The Peace Bridge Lighting Patterns

September 30, 2013  •  2 Comments

Lavender and Blue Peace Bridge at Dusk with Reflections in the Niagara River, Buffalo, New York (NY).Peace Bridge Dressed in Lavender & Blue Long exposures give the fast flow of the Niagara River the soft milky look in daylight and allow for interesting reflections at dusk and night. They work well with some lighting patterns of the bridge when a single color is on for the duration of the extended exposure. Long exposures also blur the traffic on the bridge and allow for the cars tail lights to become nice light trails of red from the north, or white from the south.

I was able to use this approach for the first two photos of this post. I stayed with the base ISO 100 and a small aperture, f/14 for the first photo and f/18 for the second. Both were 30 second exposures

Long exposures present a problem though with other lighting patterns when a single color is not displayed long enough. If the color changes during the exposure you get color theory in action adding the different colors together resulting in a look the bridge never had. If the colors change fast enough, all long exposures may end up looking the same in the end too.

Violet and Blue Peace Bridge at Dusk with Reflections in the Niagara River, Buffalo, New York (NY).Peace Bridge Dressed in Violet & Blue This evening I was lucky to be presented with many different looks of the bridge.The colors alternated among lavender, violet, purple, and red and I also had an opportunity to attempt capturing of the rolling effect.

When the rolling kicked off I first tried to capture all of the different colors the bridge cycled through that night. To get a  uniform color I timed the duration and determined I had at most 5 seconds based on how quickly I reacted to the change, or less. So for the next couple photos I changed my settings to f/8 and 2 seconds, bumping my ISO up to 320. That allowed me to squeeze a shot in between changes. I was able to capture Peace Bridge in red and Peace Bridge in purple as you can see in the next pair of photos.

Long exposures don't allow for capturing of rolling colors either. Sometimes, the change from one color to another is not instant for the whole length of the bridge but instead, the change rolls from one side to the other. To capture that well my guess would be to go to sub-second exposures, possibly down to a 1/4 second or so. Staying at f/8 and needing three stops of faster shutter speed the ISO would have to go to around 2,500.  I did not try that and it remains on my to do list. 

Lavender Peace Bridge at Dusk with Reflections in the Niagara River, Buffalo, New York (NY).Peace Bridge Dressed in Purple & Blue Red Peace Bridge at Dusk with Reflections in the Niagara River, Buffalo, New York (NY).Peace Bridge Dressed in Red & Blue

There was one more  pattern. For a while, each of the bridge sections was lit in alternating violet and red colors. That created a true splash of color reflected below in the Niagara River, one might say a special rainbow. But that would be the wrong bridge - Rainbow Bridge is a bit down the river past Grand Island and Niagara Falls. Anyway, the remaining blue from the sky, the violet and red from the bridge, and the green from the traffic light provided quite a palette!

Alternating vVolet and Red Peace Bridge at Dusk with Reflections in the Niagara River, Buffalo, New York (NY).Peace Bridge Dressed in a Rainbow
Color Splash Reflection under Peace Bridge, Buffalo, New York (NY)

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Comments

Daniel Novak Photo
Thanks for stopping by Justin. The lighting patterns change often and it's interesting to go back frequently. That is one thing I like about photography - it gets me out to see new things, and also old things i new light!
Justin Noker(non-registered)
this is the bridge that we drive under every time i go to my grandparents, never would've seen the lighting patterns like that though
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