The weekend before last, I did two meetups with some local Pentaxians. On Saturday, we went to South Mountain. On Sunday, we went to Tempe Town Lake. Interested_observer put some of his pictures here.

Tempe Town Lake and the park that surrounds it is fairly new. It was all finished in 1999. It's part of the Salt River, which, despite the name, is not salty. The dam is made of four giant rubber bladders sitting between the pylons of this pedestrian bridge. The bridge is new, actually, built in 2011, partly to help shade the bladders from the relentless desert sun.



In 2010, before I moved here, the July heat caused one of the bladders to burst, draining the lake completely. It wasn't that big of a deal, really, since the city downstream was built with the assumption that the riverbed would flood periodically. I'm told it smelled pretty bad, though. Once the city replaced the bladders, they let some extra water out from Lake Roosevelt way upstream, and the lake was back in two and a half weeks.

The first railroad bridge to span the river here (it was a very strong river until a network of dams built between 1911 and 1940 all but eliminated it) was built in the 1880's. Weakened by floods, it collapsed in 1902 while a train was passing over it. Photographers gathered for miles around to see the aftermath. One of the train's passenger cars was left dangling half over the broken edge of the track. If it had gone over, many more would have been hurt or killed. As it was, only one of the locomotive operators died.

I don't know what happened to the second bridge, but the third was built in 1912, and has stood the test of time. That's it on the right. They still use it today.



The one on the left is, of course, much newer. It's for Phoenix's new light rail transit system, finished in 2008. If you want to read some art-speak about the triangular design, go ahead, it's all here. Something about pattern language and collective conversations.



The first road bridge across the river was the Ash Avenue bridge, built by prison labor between 1911 and 1913. The problem was, it was designed for the age of horses, but was born into the automotive age. It was just too small, and floods kept damaging it. It was replaced in 1931 by the much larger and sturdier Mill Avenue bridge, which still handles all southbound traffic today.



Later on, as traffic got heavier, more and more cars relied on a road right over the dry riverbed. The river had been dammed away to nothing by the middle of the century, but the dry riverbed was still at the mercy of monsoon floods. In 1994, a second span was finished, which now handles all northbound Mill Avenue traffic, regardless of the season. It's on the left in this picture, with the original span on the right. It's definitely not as pretty as the old one, but hey, it works.



Sorry for all the history! I was really just going to show you the pictures, but then I got curious, and it turned into a late-night history binge. I didn't know half the stuff I typed here before tonight. Fascinating stuff! To me, anyway. Anyone else can just enjoy the pictures, hopefully.

[AussieTrev]

Lovely series.

[london.paul1]

Really beautiful shots, and I also enjoyed the quick history lesson! Thanks for posting both.

[daacon]

Great evening shots and interesting history for sure.

[Quest4ADV]

Awesome shots. I would love to see the pre and post processing pics as I'm trying to learn about post processing.

Thanks for sharing.

[GibbyTheMole]

Great pics! Looks like a photogenic place, too.

[normhead]

These would be better shot with a bridge camera....
Great images, thanks for sharing...

[MSL]

Great compositions. You've framed all the shots nicely.

[TedH42]

Great night shots with nice balance, and a fun history lesson. Thanks.

[scratchpaddy]

Lovely series.

Much appreciated!

Really beautiful shots, and I also enjoyed the quick history lesson! Thanks for posting both.

Glad you enjoyed them!

Great evening shots and interesting history for sure.

Thank you Dave. It's a really interesting place, both in the past and today.

Awesome shots. I would love to see the pre and post processing pics as I'm trying to learn about post processing.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for looking! I actually didn't do a whole lot to these in post. I'm still very much an amateur, so if the original's not close to what I want, I'm kind of lost. Most of them were underexposed and slightly crooked, so I fixed that. I do all my editing in Lightroom.

Here's a before and after on the first picture, with the original JPEG on the right, and my final from the raw on the left. I pulled down the highlights, warmed up the white balance, and boosted contrast and saturation.

[scratchpaddy]

Great pics! Looks like a photogenic place, too.

No kidding! This isn't the last time we'll come here, for sure.

These would be better shot with a bridge camera....
Great images, thanks for sharing...

Ha ha, I still have my bridge from years ago. It's a Canon, heaven forbid. Great little camera, though. It's a gateway drug to SLR's.

Great compositions. You've framed all the shots nicely.

Thanks very much! I love how night photography forces you to slow down and really consider what you're about to shoot, since it's going to take a while before you get to take another.

Great night shots with nice balance, and a fun history lesson. Thanks.

I'm glad we all had some fun with it, then.

[Quest4ADV]

Much appreciated!



Glad you enjoyed them!



Thank you Dave. It's a really interesting place, both in the past and today.



Thanks for looking! I actually didn't do a whole lot to these in post. I'm still very much an amateur, so if the original's not close to what I want, I'm kind of lost. Most of them were underexposed and slightly crooked, so I fixed that. I do all my editing in Lightroom.

Here's a before and after on the first picture, with the original JPEG on the right, and my final from the raw on the left. I pulled down the highlights, warmed up the white balance, and boosted contrast and saturation.

LOVE IT!

Thanks for sharing

[burzum]

nice shots...

[Sailor]

If I've seen better night photography, I certainly don't remember it. Impressive stuff.

Jer

[volley]

Great compositions and excellent processing!