The Prince of Wales Bridge

The Prince of Wales Bridge

And here we are again! There is something special about this bridge, something that keeps drawing me back. I’m not quite sure why but the big skies, changing weather, strong architectural shapes and fast moving water are all play their part.

From the English side, the Eastern side, the bridge runs off to the West for 5km in a gently sweeping arc towards the North. The curve is nice as it brings a little more interest to photographs by enabling more compositions than with a simple straight bridge. But it’s long at just over 5km and so it’s far side is generally small if included in a composition. The obvious compositions lend themselves to panoramic formats and work well but they are long when printed at any size. :-) When the tide is low the muddy bottom of the estuary is exposed and with a setting sun in the right location the soggy mud can turn wonderful colours.

In the late Autumn to early Spring the sun sets to the South of the bridge where the horizon is the sea or the far distant coast of Wales. Thus the setting sun goes all the way down to the horizon and at these times can provide excellent low-angle light as it’s not blocked by distant hills or other objects. Sometimes tho, the best light is actually after the sun has dipped below the horizon and it starts to illuminate the clouds in gorgeous shades of yellow, orange or pink from the underside.

The tidal range in the area of the bridge is in the region of 14 metres or 46 Feet (huge) and at any time but slack water the sea rushes under the bridge. Not that it’s always obvious unless the eye is drawn to floating objects but it’s very obvious in exposures that last a second or more. With the water moving at speed it's easy to blur water movement without needing big-stoppers which is great. :-)

In this part of the UK, weather normally comes from the West and it seems to like crossing the South coast of Wales and moving up the Bristol Channel. Stood on the side of the Bristol channel you are exposed to whatever weather is passing and it's usually breezy and rather cool. So, if you plan to go, take a hat, gloves and coat! But the variety and changing weather can mean interesting skies especially around the golden and blue hours.

So having written good stuff about the location, I must mention the photograph at the top of this post. Recently the weather was forecast to be cold and clear overnight but with a cold front accompanied by rain and wind arriving from the West at sunrise. Thinking that the rising sun might dramatically light the approaching clouds I tried my luck on the English side of the bridge. But unfortunately the approaching front didn’t have any edge, it just gradually drifted across until cloud filled the sky. However, for a few brief minutes after the rising sun cleared the Eastern horizon it caught the bottom some clouds and added a little colour for the photograph.

Andy