A covered bridge shot at Powerscourt

I’m planning on making a set of covered bridge View-Master reels, just for the hell of it. I already have one image of the seven I’ll need for this project (the Paper Mill Covered Bridge in Vermont), and I’d like to add six more to this set.

On Monday, I took my Nikon Df dual stereo setup to Quebec, for a day trip to photograph a very historic covered bridge.

The Powerscourt Covered Bridge spans the villages of Elgin and Hinchinbrooke, Quebec, and is the oldest surviving covered bridge of its kind in the world. It was built in 1861 with the McCallum inflexible arched truss framework, which was primarily used for railroad covered bridges. In 2011, the bridge was restored to its original look and beauty, and now exists as a one-lane bridge for vehicles (and two sidewalks for pedestrians).

There’s a few options for me. I could get a head-on shot of the bridge – along with the trusses inside. I could also attempt to get down to the shoreline and photograph the bridge over the water, which always makes for a cool image.

But there are several factors I must consider. We’re still dealing with the Canadian wildfires, so I’m probably looking at a hazy shot. And I don’t know how steep the drop is to the river level. One wrong step and I could discover the wonders of an American needing Canadian healthcare.

First up – I gotta get to Canada. Normally to get to Quebec, I just drive straight up the Northway until I see a border station. This time, however, I had to detour through Plattsburgh and Chateaugay and a couple of sovereign Native American territories before I finally reached the border station.

And I’ll tell you this. Not only did I find the most polite border guard in Canada, she also told me exactly what route to take so that I wouldn’t get lost.

A few moments later … I found it. Had to drive through it to get to the parking area, but there it was. The Powerscourt Covered Bridge.

Okay. Next up. The obligatory selfie to prove I actually got here and that this wasn’t some AI-generated mockup for blog clicks.

Man, I gotta do something about those cheekbones. They look like I have gigantic horned lumps on my face. Ugh.

So anyways … let’s do some scouting, shall we?

Which is kind of appropriate … because this bridge is right next to a scout camp.

There was also a nearby food truck, and the menu looked plenty tempting. If I could read it. Again … my French is tres mal.

Although I did read that the truck was open Thursday to Sunday – and I was here on a Monday – so no food from the truck for Chuck.

Next to the food truck was an old storage shed … that had a very interesting roof ornament.

Is that a moose antler? Wow. Now I’m wondering if I should try anything from that food truck. Maybe a side order of moose chops or something. 😀

I also walked through the bridge a few times, checking out this incredible latticework timber frame. This bridge is older than Canada itself. Wow.

And apparently this bridge is colloquially known as a “kissing bridge,” which is evident from some of the graffiti I saw on the beams.

There was another piece of lovers’ graffiti, it looked like it was at at least 50 years old, I couldn’t make out if if said “Pierre et Margaret” or “Pierre et Margot,” but hey …

Okay. I didn’t drive three hours just to shoot with a cell phone camera. I squeezed off a few shots with my film gear – I had a pack of efke 100 black-and-white film jammed into my Nikon F2S (“Nikon Athena”), and I’ll share those photos once they’re developed. Same thing in that I forgot I had packed my Kodak Medalist II (“Kodak Red”) in the car trunk, and it had a couple of shots left in it – so if you see a picture shot with Fuji Velvia 100 in a few weeks on this blog, well, you know where it came from.

But I want to try these shots with my stereo Nikon Df setup. Both cameras at the ready.

Here’s one side of the bridge.

Yeah, I might save that for later.

I thought about shimmying down to the shoreline, but recent local rainfalls made the pathway to the shore very slippery. So if I want any photos, they’ll have to be of the bridge straight on or straight inside.

So let’s take a walk inside.

Ugh. The problem with photographing the inside of a covered bridge is that there are dark spots and there are bright spots, and it’s difficult to counter-balance for everything at once.

Unless …

I looked behind me. No cars in sight.

Okay, Miller. Let’s do an HDR blast. Three shots – one over-exposed, one under-exposed, one right in the middle. And then I’ll run the three images through an HDR processing program, and …

Holy smoked meat sandwiches and poutine, Batman …

I like this. I like this a lot.

Okay. Now let’s really put this to the test. Outside shot of the bridge – with the interior latticework as visible as possible. Can I do this?

I looked behind me. Truck coming. Okay, Chuck. Step out of the way. Let the truck pass.

Truck passed. Followed by two motorcycles, a Toyota Prius, and what looked like an RCMP cruiser.

Okay. Coast is clear. Let’s get this shot and get it right.

Three images. Got ’em. Combine them in HDR capture. Got ’em. And …

Can you say short pile?? Hello Altamont, hello Big E, hello Durham, hello Syracuse, this bad boy’s going in one of them. Or maybe ALL of them.

Oh, and I had to try this technique for my View-Master stereo custom covered bridge shot. If you relax your gaze, you can see stereo straight down the center of this bridge.

Wow. Freakin’ A wow.

And yeah, I cloned out the power wire in the earlier photo above … but that one’s for competition, this one’s for the customized View-Master reel.

Okay. Everybody go back in the car. Nikons, Athena, Kodak Red, Chuck. And back home I go.

Side note – I pit-stopped at one of the Native American reservations, played some of the slots (won $40), picked up a sandwich (apparently this place doesn’t serve the local sandwich delicacy of Plattsburgh, the “Michigan”), and then headed home to process all these pictures.

Yeah, this was fun. And a much-needed break from real life.

And now I get to do all this again tonight …

Down at the Empire State Plaza. Yep. Fireworks time.