Under the Dripping Rock Trail Bridge
Highbanks Metro Park located just north of Columbus Ohio is appropriately named for its massive 100-foot high shale bluffs that tower over the Olentangy State Scenic River. Tributary streams cutting across the bluff have created a number of deep ravines exposing Ohio and Olentangy shales on the bluff face and sides of the ravines.
The Dripping Rock Trail winds through a hardwood forest, passing steep ravines and shale outcroppings. I was photographing various scenes of a stream in a deep ravine along the trail when I looked up and noticed the interesting patterns created by the support structure of the bridge. I climbed up the steep bank under the east side of the bridge and photographed the underneath view of the bridge you see above. The image consists of 3 separate exposures (1-stop under normal, normal, and 1-stop over normal) combined and processed in Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro Version 2 to create the final HDR image. Below is a low view of the stream covered with leaves showing its shale streambed as it flows under the bridge through the ravine.
