Saturday, May 14, 2011

Suspended humanation


George Washington never looked like this
New York, NY, March 2011
About this photo: I keep finding vehicular scenes to share, so I keep posting 'em. Hope that's OK with you. New Thematic goes live tomorrow (Sunday) night. Until then, click here to get your last-minute submissions in. Deadlines don't really apply here.
Shooting* from a car is a sketchy proposition on a good day. But add some cloud, some spitting rain, some smudgy windows, lots of stop-and-go traffic and a pocket camera (temporarily stole it from my wife - please don't tell her) that doesn't much tolerate on-the-move action photography and you've got a recipe for a memory card full of nothingness.

But I tried, anyway, because I had never been on this particular structure, the George Washington Bridge, and I had read about the work of its chief engineer, Othmar Ammann for so long that I wanted to have some kind of memory of the moment. I'm odd that way, but you know that by now. Or soon will.

So, much to the amusement of my colleagues, I randomly shot through the fixed minivan windows as we approached the bridge, and kept shooting as we crept along. I'm sure adjacent motorists were thinking "terrorist", but that didn't stop me, either.

In the end, the results weren't half-bad. They're stark, unintentionally monochrome slices of an iconic piece of American engineering. More importantly, they take me back to a rather light-hearted moment with a great bunch of people, and they give me a slice of reality that I'm able to share with my family - and with you. They remind me why even grey days demand little injections of color wherever we can manage them.

Your turn: How do you turn a grey day into a colorful one?

One more thing: Bonus points for anyone who knows what the heck I'm talking about with the title to this entry.

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* Shooting, as in photography. Not, you know, shooting. I've done both. I prefer the lens kind, but I admit feeling an immense sense of power and responsibility when I first pulled the trigger and felt the gun - a Galil assault rifle - recoil. Story for another day, I suppose.

4 comments:

Dawn said...

GREAT drive-by shot!!!!!!! Incredible structure...I've never seen it before.
Hmmmm....your title? Is there a person hanging for dear life somewhere at the top?;);) no idea otherwise:))

Catherine said...

I'v taken quite a few bridge shots and it never occurred to me that someone would think I was a terrorist, just for taking photos.
I'm sure real terrorists would use a much tinier, more unobstrusive camera than mine. Not that we really worry about terrorists in this part of the world.

Kalei's Best Friend said...

This may be totally off but when I saw the title it reminded me of the countless stories when a distraught person would be found standing atop a bridge similar to the one in your photo... A person suspended in time contemplating whether to jump and end their life... Or suspended humanation could refer to one who has passed and is in limbo?

21 Wits said...

On the title I do believe it's a song, now I'll have to google that! I once drove over that same bridge, although it was evening and very dark, but the lights were incredible! I was just as giddy about driving over something so grand that I felt it was almost human! If I hadn't been driving I would have snapped some photos too...we were on a journey back home ....and far too often you just grab the view only by sight...and wish later, why didn't I take a moment and snap ...snap....snap!