Project 52 - Down by the River - Week 9

9/52

Jesse and I had an impromptu date day/night when Riley's grandparents offered to take her overnight this past Saturday. It was an "out of character 60 degrees in February" kind of day so we decided to take advantage of the fine weather and go for a walk in NE Minneapolis. As did everyone else. I don't think I've seen the Stone Arch bridge that busy even in the summer. People were obviously wanting to embrace this rare day.

We decided to park on Nicollet Island, walk over the Stone Arch Bridge, and then loop back over Hennepin Avenue. We took a detour to eat dinner at Whitey's before heading home to watch The Martian together.

Of course I brought my camera on the walk with us and took lots of pictures, but I wanted to highlight just a couple here. Jesse and I have taken pictures before of the Hennepin bridge from below and they are some of my favorite. The sun wasn't really cooperating since it was shining through the gap between the lanes and I wanted a shot right in that spot, but I decided to make do.

 In the first picture, I kept my aperture pretty wide open and it created this cool halo effect.

But I wanted more of a star burst effect so I narrowed my aperture and instead got this almost raindrop effect.

Nothing is that great about these pictures, except they created some cool effects. I like the top, husband likes the bottom. Disclaimer: There are a lot of different thoughts about shooting right into the sun... some say it's a big no no and other's claim it's fine. Based on what I knew about how DSLR's handle the sun and the short amount of time I was in front of it, I took the risk. 

 And because I felt slightly blinded by the above pictures, I wanted to capture one without the bright sun. This lady, unknowingly, created a nice pop of color. Thanks, random stranger.