Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Sunset

Of all the photos that I’ve taken, this has to be in my top 5 favorites. Technically, it’s not perfect, but that doesn’t take away from the beauty. There’s only one way to get this shot – get very, very lucky or hire a giant cruise ship. I took this photo in October 2004 from about 100 feet up in the middle of the bay – I was on a cruise ship – the Grandeur of the Seas – for a two-week cruise up the East coast out of Baltimore, stopping in Maine, Nova Scotia, Quebec, etc. All in the fall, so it was just beautiful.

Back to the shot – we left Baltimore in the afternoon and hit the bridges just before the sun set – talk about luck! I would have liked a few puffy clouds to give the sky some texture or streaks, but you can’t have everything! I snapped away taking more than a dozen shots with my Nikon D100 (my first digital camera) and this was absolutely the best. By the time we cleared the bridges, the sun was down. So it really was perfect timing.

I took more than 1,000 photos on that cruise (nowadays, it would probably be in the 3,000 range), but this is the one that stands out.

Exposure information: Nikon D100, Nikon 28-300 f/3.5-5.6, 1/160s at f/6.3, ISO 200, 28mm