Sometimes you get a job that comes from nowhere but is a total blast to do.

“We would like you to photograph a cycle bridge for us.”

“Well, actually, we have a bunch of bridge spans coming into Exeter from the Midlands, they will be travelling through the night. They will be offloaded in Exeter and then loaded onto a big pontoon which will be towed along the canal to Turf locks where it will wait for high-tide. At high-tide the pontoon will be towed across the Exe estuary to the Clyst estuary where it will wait for low tide.”

“Yes, we need low tide to get under the railway bridge. Once under the bridge we will wait for the next high tide so that the span is high enough to be lifted onto the concrete plinths, we have created a lifting rig to do the last bit.”

“The good news is that we will be doing this three times over consecutive nights… The bad news is that we aren’t allowed floodlights, no, the birds don’t like them.”

“We would like you to photograph that.”

Great sport, so that was my week, buoyancy aids, hard hats, flash vests and out with the chunky boots. (Suits you Sir).

At some point my submersible bag fetish seemed to make more sense than ever, I like the idea of luggage that can take a total dunking whether it is the Peli, or the various roll tops that I have.

We walked the route prior to the job, visualised the final images before the journey started, planned the vantage points. It seems the 14-24mm Nikkor had been a fortuitous recent purchase choice although that exposed from element was a worry when jumping in and out of very small dinghies.

I guess the the icing on the cake could have been being interviewed by Spotlight afterwards, an unexpected event, but no, the client was ecstatic about the results, that’s what counts.