A Bridge Never Sleeps Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is a follow-up to Kent's great shot "Good Night Bridge", showing that the Øresund Bridge never sleeps. It's open 24/7 for trains and cars crossing what once was known as 'The Moat' [Vallgraven] between Sweden and Denmark.

Until the second half of 1999 you had car ferries - traveling roughly the same route in 50 minutes - once every hour with the last ferry at around 23 p.m. But if you wanted to cross later than that, you had to go for the ferries between Helsingborg and Helsingør [Elsinore] some 50 kms north.

Today there's a commuter train every 20 minutes in each direction, with the service reduced to hourly between midnight and 5 a.m. The journey is only 35 minutes downtown to downtown, with a stop inside Terminal 3 at Copenhagen Airport. By car you may cross the 16 kms (10 miles) any time you like.

The lights at the right hand side are from the airport, where traffic and activities also are going on around the clock. This proximity is the main reason why the last part of this link – crossing Drogden [the Drogd channel] – is in a tunnel.

In 2004 a total of 4.3 million vehicles crossed the bridge – which is an average of around 11'800 per day – and in total 16.8 million people traveled via the Øresund Bridge. 6.2 million of these were passengers going by train between the two countries.

I can't really understand how we managed without this link!

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Image cropped, ran autolevels and faded to 10%, adjusted brightness -5 and contrast +10, increased saturation +15, ran NeatImage at 60%, resized for TE, sharpened, framed and saved for Web. Actual shutter speed was 16 seconds.

digi-mom, maphoto, orme, nwoehnl, pamastro, ChristianS has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

digi-mom (1064) 2005-06-01 16:25

Really interesting note - as usual - and thank you for the links and the theme that you've provided to go with this information and photo. It is so difficult to capture a distant landscape at night, because details will be lost, but this does put a new perspective on the great bridge, almost reducing its importance to a mere highway at night in the grand universe. Thanks for sharing. :o)

Stepan (27175) 2005-06-01 17:04

It's a little dark, but the astmosphere and the "silence" of that moment are great !
Stéphane

maphoto (8076) 2005-06-01 21:42

Hi Kaj, excellence choice of format here, nice landscape presentation, great exposition time and setting, very clear photo. Glad that you have included the City light on the right side from a perfect angle, just enough light in the sky to see the contrast, very well done, perfectly framed.

orme (6746) 2005-06-02 4:04

Interesting composition, Kaj. I like how the series of 'dots' on the left steadily progresses to the intense lights of the city on the right. Also the small 'speck' of light in the vast night sky adds a certain tranquility to the scene. Well captured. As always, thanks for the very informative note.

nwoehnl (120) 2005-06-02 14:53

My initial reaction was "whoa, this is quite dark" - but I have to say that looking a while at it, the photo seems to be growing at the viewer. As the visible lights and illuminated structures provide really enough information to fully comprehend the view and fill in any gaps that might be hidden in the dark. The panoramic cropping was a logical choice here, and the framing is good too with 3/4 bridge and 1/4 airport lights. Well done, Kaj.

pamastro (7213) 2005-06-02 22:48

Ahh, returning to a night shot. I am doing the same with my next post, whenever that gets up.

I like how here we see the other side where in day shots it seems to extend into an endless sea. This creates a good link total path from the foreground into the distance. I have to comment on the darkness of the photo, also. The bridge sort of gets lost in it, so tiny on this dark night. But what the darkness does enhance is the glow of the city. It has a beautiful glow as all the lights reflect off the clouds. And the long link of the bridge, so lost in the darkness actually works well in leading to this glowing town. Sort of this narrow strip and then it opens up to the vibrant and spread out town.

ChristianS (2997) 2005-06-04 5:01

Hej Kaj, very nice panoramic perspective of the bridge all the way to Kastrup. I like the strip of lights leading to the lit pylons and endlessly going on. I also like the upper section of the picture with the still visible sky behind the clouds and even a star. Well captured!

Mvh, Christian

jiherka (4465) 2005-06-04 17:49

Nice view of this bridge during the night. But if you were more close of the bridge, the perspective would be better?
I like the sky with the star, in contraste with the black sky just down where is the lighted town.
Well done Kaj.

kent_s (1911) 2005-06-07 4:34

Hej Kaj
What a wonderful follow up. The pylons stands majestic, glowing white. But I thought the Sandman came around midnight and tucked it in every nigh :)
Well done
Hälsningar
Kent
PS
Nu måste ju jag bara ut & ta en ny bild på bron i höst när mörkret kommer så jag kan ha nordöfärjan där oxå :)