Portraits of a Bridge – Bryce Baker Recounts His Morning Photographing Edmonton’s Walterdale Bridge

In September 2023, Bryce Baker woke up early, packed his gear, and headed to the Walterdale Bridge for an exercise in photographic freedom. Leaving his tripod in the car, Bryce set out to flex a muscle many architectural photographers often don’t – going hand-held!

“I didn’t necessarily set out to create images that were different from anybody else’s, but I wanted them to be different than my own. I wanted to challenge the methodical processes I’d adopted over the few years that I had been working professionally,” Bryce explained.

He continued “Aside from the moody dawn photo, I left my tripod in the car and didn’t bother bringing any tether equipment at all. I approached photographing this bridge as a documentary exploration of placemaking. I didn’t want to set up my tripod, dial in my composition, and wait for something to happen within the frame, but rather to capture life as it happened around me. That meant shooting the majority of the project handheld, with a 17mm shift lens, and a 24-70 on a Sony A7IV.”

Bryce’s photographs of Walterdale are infused with a sense of time and place. I can almost feel the crisp early autumn morning air through my screen. The gorgeous lighting, painterly reflections, and restrained processing make these shots feel special.

I appreciate the details of the bridge that Bryce includes and how they chunk down this massive structure into visual, bite-sized pieces. What I appreciate even more though, is his attention to detail and the way you can tell he cared for these vignettes just as much as he did the hero shots!

The other thing that makes this project stand out to me is the well-timed use of figures. Life, function, purpose – their inclusion makes this feel more like a series of portraits of a bridge, rather than just pictures of a bridge – telling its story and place in time.

This next shot makes me realize how badly I wish I was the one fishing under the bridge on a crisp fall morning! Great sense of emotion and place, Bryce!

What great compositions!

I asked Bryce to break down the making of his three favorite shots from this series. We’ll start with his third favorite:

“[This detail] made me feel like I was more of a documentary photographer than a commercial one. These pedestrians were seemingly meandering, and they provided a nice scale to the giant piers. Post-production was straightforward and included some curves and graffiti removal,” he said.

“My second favourite image was taken shortly after sunrise,” he explained. “While I was ultimately satisfied with the early morning image, the rain and overcast skies still gave me little hope for the rest of the day. I threw my tripod back in my car, and to my luck, the clouds broke. The morning sun was shining bright. The wet ground and foliage created a nice contrast to the glowing bridge and rich blue sky. Pedestrians and cyclists were appearing more frequently as they commuted to work, and I somehow managed to hold my camera still enough at 1/15 of a second to keep the bridge sharp while achieving a nice motion blur on the cyclist passing by.”

Last but not least is the pièce de résistance! Bryce mused, “While I’m proud that the majority of the series was handheld, my favourite photo is the dawn image. It was a 3 hour drive to Edmonton, and when I awoke early in the morning to drive to location, I was quite discouraged by rain and couldn’t help but feel like my efforts would be futile.

By the time I set up my camera in the position I scouted the day earlier, everything changed. It was still raining, but the dark sky slowly brightened.  A soft bit of colour appeared, and for a brief moment the bridge’s illuminated stringers held a beautiful contrast to the sky.

Because of the rain I chose a 20mm prime lens over a shift lens to keep water out and I recomposed the image in post and extended the sky. The general composite was only two exposures, plus a couple more for the light streaks on the bridge.”

What a gorgeous shoot and wonderful personal project! Thanks so much for sharing this Bryce!

You can find more of Bryce’s work on his shiny new website brycebaker.ca. You can also pop over to Instagram and find him @clasual.

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