autofantasia's photos with the keyword: bridge

The second of my panorama shots from our trip to Dalgety Bay and Queensferry. This one has been created from 17 (no that's not a typo) images stitched together in Photoshop and shows the full expanse of the infamous rail bridge that stretches across the River Forth. As with the last one the size and the detail in the original file is pretty impressive, but once again I've had to reduce it somewhat for upload which sadly means a lot of the detail is lost. Still, I hope there's enough left for you guys to get some enjoyment from seeing it. The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge and considered to be both an iconic structure and a symbol of Scotland. It was designed by the English engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, work on it began in 1882 and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. With a total length of 8,094 feet (2,467m) it was the longest single cantilever bridge span in the world until 1917 when the Quebec Bridge in Canada was completed. It continues to be the world's second-longest single cantilever span and it was a pleasure to get time to photograph it. Please try it large on black for best effect.

When we went to Dalgety Bay earlier this year I managed to pop across to Queensferry to get some snaps and to have another go at panoramas. This is one such attempt and has been created from 8 images stitched together in Photoshop. The main subject of the shot is the existing road bridge that stretches across the River Forth. However, if you look closely you might be able to see the beginnings of the Queensferry Crossing. This bridge is being built alongside the existing Forth Road Bridge and will carry the M90 motorway across the Firth of Forth between South Queensferry and North Queensferry. You can read more about it by following the link below: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensferry_Crossing Please view large on black for best effect or go to View All Sizes.

They say a fairy ring (also known as fairy circle, elf circle, elf ring or pixie ring) is a naturally occurring ring or arc of mushrooms, but I'm not having that ... I know it's actually a magical porthole that binds the world of man and the fairies together, through which the fairies can come and go as they please. Mushrooms ... pah! Seriously, this was a 'nearly ran' for this week's Sunday Challenge for which the theme was mirroring and we were all asked to use the same stock image. However, from there we could do what we wanted with it: we could mirror, process and texture it in whatever way we wanted. The stock image we were provided with was The Bridge of the Fairies by Leina1 over on Deviant Art. You will find a copy of this in the Notes if you don't want to follow the links through to Deviant Art . For this one I mirrored the image horizontally and then created a vertically mirrored copy to create a circle of sorts and then went down the tried and tested orb route with a few enhancement along the way.

Legend has it that if you travel to the very edge of man's world And sit quietly on the grassy bank amongst the ferns unfurled Where the four magic rivers flow and lovers look for romance Then there's every chance that you might see the faeries dance So the theme for this week's Sunday Challenge was mirroring and we were all asked to use the same stock image. However, from there we could do what we wanted with it: we could mirror, process and texture it in whatever way we wanted. The stock image we were provided with was The Bridge of the Fairies by Leina1 over on Deviant Art. You will find a copy of this in the Notes if you don't want to follow the links through to Deviant Art . I experimented using PicMonkey to see what effects I could generate by mirroring Leina's excellent photo. Quite quickly I discovered that if I placed the original on the right before applying the mirroring effect the stones that supported the bridge started to look awfully like a large skull ... a discovery I then set out to take full advantage of by adding in some menacing looking eyes. The mirrored pair of images were then mirrored again so that I ended up with 4 stone arches, 2 skulls, and a grassy area in the middle. That looked to me like it was crying out for a statue of some kind so I dug into my archives where I uncovered a shot I'd taken of an odd little statue whilst visiting an open garden in Whixley. The statue was only about 4 feet tall and once again you'll find a copy of the original shot in the Notes. Obviously, I had to process it somewhat to get the proportions to look best in the space and to try and get it to match the existing stonework of the bridge. A small section of which I copied across to form the small group of stones at the statue's base. I still felt the overall image I was producing looked too obviously mirrored so I set out to try and disguise this somewhat by altering the trees against the skyline and cloning in some extra stones into the river. Next I wanted to create some foreground to the picture so that it would appear the shot had been taken from a field or another bridge under which the 4 rivers would flow. I had the idea of creating a wall so I once again dipped into the archives and utilised a shot I'd taken of a section of dry stone walling when out walking close to Roseberry Topping. Again for the curious amongst you I've inserted a copy of this image into the Notes. I deleted the sky from my shot and then mirrored it before mirroring it again to create a long enough section of wall to go from on side of my image to the other. I then returned to PicMonkey to look for some suitable texture and in the end I chose one of the ones in their Clouds section. I chose this because the one thing I didn't like about my combined image at that time was the fact that the sky was rather washed out and lifeless, but this texture gave me some striking clouds and helped to add the appearance of dappled light elsewhere. Finally, I took the image back into PaintShop Pro to add some flares, which I found in the Picture Tube tool, to represent the 'dancing faeries'. Oh, and the poem is by me, just a few words I strung together that I felt helped reinforce the atmosphere I was trying to convey when creating the image. Best viewed large for best effect, so please hit z and enjoy!