Motion & Decay

Bridge over the Big Thompson River
Photograph by Tom Atwood

There is a lot of motion in this photograph. One reason I love the Big Thompson River in Colorado is because it is always moving very fast. It was the first "mountain stream" I saw growing up. When I was 13 I took 8 mm home movies of it. An entire three-minute reel of the Big Thompson. (I was used to slower-moving rivers like the Big Muddy and Mississippi.) But there is another movement in this photograph taken last summer in Rocky Mountain National Park. The motion of decay on the bridge, moving even more slowly than the Big Muddy in Southern Illinois. Shutter: 2 seconds; Aperture: f/29; ISO: 100; Focal length: 32 mm (cropped)