I found myself with some time on my hands on Monday 7/3, as my wife did not get that extra day off for the 4th of July weekend while I had the day off work. The weather was fairly volatile, with rain and dark clouds moving thru the area, so I decided to take advantage of that to get out and shoot! No such thing as bad weather!

Last year in the fall I visited a few of our local covered bridges on a few different occasions, but decided that this day would be a great day to hit 4 covered bridges in the county that I live – Greene County, Ohio. I also wanted to mix it up a bit and shoot each bridge in 3 different ways – Infrared Digital, Lomo Metropolis 35mm film, and medium format B&W film. The extra twist was that I brought with me the vintage Argus Seventy-Five box camera to shoot the medium format film. The hope being that at the end of the day I’d have 3 very distinct looks for each bridge.

Bridge #1 – Ballard Road

The Ballard Road Covered Bridge is a historic wooden covered bridge in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Built in the late nineteenth century and since bypassed, the bridge has been named a historic site. Following a design by H.E. Hebble, James E. Brown built the bridge across Caesar's Creek in 1883.

The clouds were angry with some rain occasionally falling. The thing I didn’t think about during my drive to this first stop was the high humidity – the minute I hopped out of my Pathfinder my camera lenses fogged up, and it was nearly ½ an hour before they acclimated to the outside temps and became clear. Rookie mistake! The rest of the adventure I planned to drive without the A/C on. I suffer for my art. 😊

I spent an hour shooting the bridge from different angles and on all 3 cameras.  

I’m loving the infrared, and the way that it conveyed the storm clouds and separated the bridge from its surroundings. I also like the “retro” look of the images shot on the Argus. I loaded some Ilford HP5+ and it didn’t let me down. My typical MO for shooting the Argus on dreary days is to shoot HP5+ and then Semi-Stand develop it. That method/combo usually gets me some nice, dense negatives to work with. My thoughts on the Metropolis film images? Hmm. I don’t know yet.

Bridge #2 – Charleton Mill

The 119-foot long Charlton Mill covered bridge was built in 1860 to span Massie Creek. It fell into disrepair and was closed in 2011. A large project to rebuild it to modern standards began the following year and it was completed and re-opened in 2013.

This one is a hard one to photograph. There’s almost nowhere to park that your vehicle isn’t in the shot, and the rainy day meant that those areas were muddy and a potential day-ruiner if I got stuck. You can’t shoot it from farther back as its in a bend that has it partially obscured unless you are nearly right in front of it. And to add to that, it was raining fairly hard and about 4 to 5 stops darker than the prior bridge I was at. Less images were shot at this location.

Out of the shots above, I think my favorite is the old-timey looking B&W film shot from the Argus.. My least favorite are the Metropolis images.

Bridge #3 – Glen Helen Preserve – Cemetery Road Bridge

This is a bridge I don’t know a lot about. The “road” it is on is no longer a functioning road, and is mostly just an overgrown path. It’s on Glen Helen Park land, and was built in 1885. You have to park on Grinnell Road in Yellow Springs and walk back to it. I remember when I went to Glen Helen in 4th Grade for a week long class trip, and one of our counselors took us on a walk back to the bridge. That would have been somewhere around 1979, and it was my first time seeing the bridge. It doesn’t look a lot different today, other than maybe more graffiti and more overgrown.

 Once again, the infrared images really do it for me. They really separate the bridge from all of the foliage, and allow it to stand out much more than it does when you are there in person.

 Bridge #4 – Hyde Road

This is the newest bridge in the area, being completed in 2014 on a stretch of road that goes above the bike path. Before the bridge it was a fairly ordinary concrete structure. Now instead is a beautiful example of a Howe Truss bridge, which was a popular design in the mid-to-late 1800s.

This bridge is another one that is difficult to shoot, as it sits in a near S-curve with a T-intersection behind it. You have to shoot wide, or, just accept that the bridge is going to fill the frame if you are shooting with a “normal” lens.

 Once again the infrared shots are my jam. I love the look and the separation it gives. My only regret with the IR is that you can’t see the beautiful red color of the bridge. But you can’t really on the black and white or Metropolis either.

The Hyde Road bridge was my last bridge of the day. The rain clouds were leaving and the sun was starting to break thru – this meant the humidity and heat were about to combine into something dreadful.

There are two other covered bridges in Greene County – Engle Mill Road and Stevenson Road. Maybe soon I will try to plan a trip where I can get them ALL in on one day.

This was my first time shooting with Metropolis, and I’m not yet a fan. It may work great for city scenes and give that “gritty” look that is so popular nowadays, but for shooting covered bridges in the countryside I think it falls flat. That may be on me for my choice to use it for that, so I’ll wait on giving my final thoughts on the film until I shoot another roll or two.

What are your thoughts? Have a favorite “look” of the three?

As always, thanks for reading!

Jeremy