6:18 am – I had my camera in the front seat with me and I took a quick grab shot of this bridge that I have always called – “Rainbow Bridge.”  Turns out it has a official name – “The Lilac Bridge”.  It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this bridge is very high, maybe a couple of hundred feet above interstate 15.  It has always marked the entry to San Diego for me.  I did a quick Google search and here’s a little background on the bridge.

The Lilac Bridge over I-15 at the southern entrance to Bonsall and Fallbrook makes a great gateway to San Diego coming down south from Riverside County. This is the famous bridge that has dramatic soaring arch construction. The Lilac Road Bridge is a very dramatic and attractive bridge. It looks like a giant scythe poised over the roadway. The way the arch joins the deck looks organic, more like the way a plant grows than something made by humans. The bridge is also known as the Rainbow Bridge because of its arched shape.   The Lilac Road Bridge is a reinforced concretearch bridge in San Diego, California, built in 1978. It was designed by Caltrans architect William Wells

While traveling in San Diego, I spotted this Bank with a very unusual mural on the wall next to the drive-up ATM. I made a quick u-turn. I just had to grab a shot of this. To my surprise, another mural on the back of the building. Very strange to find a Bank painted with such bright colors, it kind-of made me smile.  Not the best time of day for an image, but I think it worked.  Looks like the owner is a pretty fun person or is a good painter.

San Diego Skyline

Well here is a fine example of a failure in my opinion. I didn’t have a tripod with me so I placed the camera on the tailgate of my truck. You can see that the image didn’t quite come out sharp. I think the next attempt will be to do a pano of the same location and maybe use a different lens.  I thought I wanted the boats in the foreground, but know that I see the final image, I think their a little distracting.

And here’s a few more problems. My watermark is huge.  The strange thing is that the watermark is a pre-set in Aperture and I never really have any problems with it, but this image is cropped a little and that must have thrown off the scale just a bit.  The image has a blue cast that is really noticeable on the boats.  Oh well, if you don’t try, you will never learn.

Hit the comments and telll me how you would have approached a shot like this…