The Mighty Gateway.

When we climbed the Gateway bridge last weekend we noticed how nice it would be to get a picture of it from underneath, just to get a full appreciation for the towering structure. These bridges need to cope with some of the biggest cruise ships in the world crawling underneath so they have to be tall. It's not immediately obvious to a new comer to Brisbane that the Gateway is actually twin bridges, the first being completed in 1986 and the second twin built to completion in 2010.
At its highest point, the Bridge is 64.5 metres above the Brisbane River, the equivalent of a 20 storey building. The bridges owe their unique curved shape to the competing requirements of shipping navigation which requires a height of at least 55 metres above the water, yet the landing aircraft pass directly overhead with their landing gear already down meaning the bridges cannot be over 80 metres tall. Even then the curve can't create too large a gradient for traffic requirements!

This is my first attempt at HDR. I think I will have to learn to be more subtle with the tonal compression and not give in to temptation to be quite so heavy handed. Slowly slowly. Little bit by little bit I will rein it in. The lighting conditions were not perfect but there was a wonderful dramatic sky which made up for it.