UNION COVERED BRIDGE

Snow Day Trip To A Covered Bridge

(Click on any image to enlarge it)

This past week we were hit with a blizzard of a snow storm here in Mid-Missouri.  Some areas reported up to 19 inches of snow and temperatures were below freezing.  At my house I had to go out and shovel an area for the dog to go to the bathroom.  Okay so while I was out there I cleared off an area around my bird feeders for my feathered friends. A friend of mine captured an image of the Union Covered Bridge a little while back on a previous snow day.  Between the bridge and creek it made for a stunning image.  So Bob Colvin an area photographer and I had added this to our bucket list of places to visit.  Waiting for the right time was critical for us and we were rewarded with this gorgeous snow.

Bob and I live in the Jefferson City, Missouri area and are both members of the COMO Photographers Group out of Columbia, Missouri and we are officers of a newly formed club, "Friends of Eagle Bluffs Conservation Photography Group".  We try to get together once a month to do some one day field trips to practice our sport of photographing nature.  We recently spent a weekend in Dubois, WY and The Grand Tetons, both blogs of our adventure available on my blog sight.

It was luck that we were both ready to get out of the house and seize the moment to photograph this bridge in its winter wonderland.  Not a lot of planning for us just a simple text you wanna go, yes what time we leaving.  Bob travels this area on his semi-retired job so he pilots us on the outing.  We must congratulate the Missouri Department of Transportation for an exceptional job of clearing the roads.

We traveled form our locations by way of highway 54 going towards Mexico, MO.  Once in Mexico Bob pointed out a beautiful old home which is now a Museum for the American Saddlebred Museum and the Audrian County Fire Brick Museum.  We made a not to stop here on our way back to capture this scene.  I am going to include it in this blog first since I have hopefully peaked your interest.

The Graceland Museum was built by John P. Clark, a native Virginian, as a reminder of the more genteel society he once knew "back home." The mansion was host to Col. Ulysses S. Grant during the early days of the Civil War. Nine of its rooms contain displays that permit visitors to experience the Victorian elegance of the past as well as the rich history of Audrain County.  There are some unique displays here so you might want to check it out. https://www.audrain.org/museum-collections.

Fujifilm with Fuji 18-135mm lens, f/5.6, 1/160 sec, ISO 0.67, EV +0.67

We got lucky as no one had walked through the yard.  We shot this picture from the parking lot across the street at a credit union.  These were hand-held camera shots.  Take the picture then move on.

From Mexico veer left onto highway 15 going north.  Stay on highway 15 until you get to route M and go left or west.  You will travel on Rte M until you get to Rte. C and then go north which for us was a left turn.  You are going to exit Rte. C onto State Spur C which will take you to the Covered Bridge.  Since the Union Covered Bridge State Historic Site in Monroe County, Missouri, is maintained by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as a state historic site to preserve the Union Covered Bridge, there was a sign on Rte. C directing visitors to the bridge right at the Rte. C Spur turnoff.

Nikon D850, Nikor 20mm Lens, f/8, 0.6 sec., ISO 160

Rte. Spur C is also County Road 962.  The bridge spans the Elk Fork of the Salt River.  The above image is a picture of Bob Colvin photographing the bridge from a higher elevation.  This picture also shows the road as it crosses the Elk Fork.

Nikon D850, Nikor 20mm Lens, f/8, 0.08 sec, ISO 100, EV +1.67

I took this picture from the road on a tripod and cropped out the tire tracks that were leading across the Elf Fork.  This was the widest lens I took with me and now wish I had taken my 16mm fish-eye.  The distance from the road to the bridge might have been 50 to 100 yards and my lens just barely covered the this angle of view.  An alternative was to shoot this as a pano which I did later.

The bridge was built in 1871 across the Elk Fork of the Salt River as a link in the Paris-to-Fayette road. Its name comes from the nearby Union Church. In 1968 a partial restoration was completed using materials from the Mexico Covered Bridge which was destroyed the year before by flood waters. In 1970 the Union bridge was closed after structural timbers were damaged by overweight trucks. 

Nikon D850, Nikor 20mm Lens, f/8, 0.6 sec, ISO 160

This view was obtained by standing in the water as it cascaded over the concrete road crossing.  The water was moving swiftly but was not high enough to create any stability issues for me or my tripod. Again I need a little wider angle to have framed this up a little nicer in my opinion.  The temperature was around 28/29° F.  There was very little wind and what there was was sporadic.  The water was pretty clear which adds to the foreground lead-in to this composition.

A total restoration was completed in 1988. The bridge was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. The bridge is a 120-foot-long (37 m) Burr Arch span that is 17 feet 6 inches (5.33 m) wide and 12 feet (3.7 m) high. Joseph C. Elliot built the bridge in 1871 from local oak. It is sided in clapboard and uses wood shingles. Two earlier uncovered bridges at this site were replaced in turn due to deterioration. (Wikipedia)

Nikon D850. Nikor 20mm Lens, f/9, 1.0 sec., ISO 100

Here is a view of the Elk Fork as it travels downstream.  With all the snow it was hard to get a handle on the surrounding terrain so we did not venture along the banks.  I would have loved to have been able to capture the bridge from downstream so as to include this cascade in the foreground composition.  I will need to check this out come spring.  I can see the need for a set of chest waders in the future.  I recently watched a video by David Morrow Color Theory Photography Guide which I found awesome.  He talks about measuring the colors of your image using a color wheel and then trying to bring out the complementary colors of your image based on its reading.  His video show you how to do that. Its really worth watching.  Check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IMOOwR0kLo  With that said I measured my colors and found that even though the snow appears to be white in the above image it in fact has some blue in it.  The complementary colors for blue in this image is yellow and orange.  When I processed this image  I selectively created a layer mask using the color picker and applying it to a hue/saturation mask to enhance the yellow and orange colors.  This is supposed to be more pleasing to our eyes and brain but I will let each viewer decide its effect.

Anytime you go out to take pictures be cognizant of your surroundings.  Sometimes something that you might never notice could be worth taking a picture of.

Fujifilm X-T2 and Fuji 18-135mm Lens, f/3.6, 1/180 sec., ISO 200, EV +0.67

As we were loading up to call it a day the dead leaves of these trees caught my eye as being so orange.  I am sure that being surrounded by a white cape helped to make this stand out to me.  I went over to take this picture and then notice that the Elk Fork was in the background and was shaded in hues of green.  In processing this image I cropped it to take advantage of the dead leaves framing up the tree as if it was watching the river bathing.  I also used the color theory above to accentuate the oranges and green hues.

Well this concludes another blog and another great photography field trip.  We left around 9AM and were back around 1PM. Photography can clear your mind and rev up some creative juices and it gets you out of the house. 

This is a composite of two separate hand held images stitched together in Photohop to create this panoramic view.  I did not shot this with the idea of making it into a panoramic. I shot this with a 45megapixel camera and during processing I ended up with a file almost 500megabypes in size. O my.  I guess I got lucky that these two images lined up it Photoshop.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about my weekend adventure.  You can check out more of my photography trips at www.jmgilbertphoto.com and don't forget to check out my archive of blog here as well.

John Gilbert Photography

gilbej49@gmail.com