I decided to use the motor this morning. I was all walked out yesterday and getting to the Orwell Bridge with a shed load of gear is not that easy on foot.

I pulled out of the garage to a bitterly cold morning but luckily for me no ice-scaping. It totally surprised me to encounter the volume of traffic on the bridge. I had to wait ages just to get out of the car. I’ve parked in the Felixstowe bound lay-by before to get early morning pictures but that has tended to be on a Saturday or Sunday morning. Just up from this lay-by is a gate that leads to a maintenance entrance for the bridge. Keith Locke and I had been discussing making images of the tidal docks from the bridge and ideally, it would be from the mid-point but the parapets were replaced a while back and I’m not sure what emergency services would have been called out if anyone saw me with a stepladder at the highest point. I settled for the safe leeward access to the bridge workings.

I need to re-visit and also get there much earlier. I started setting up some 25 minutes before sunrise but that was really too late. Anyway these blue gloves photographed after the weasel had popped off yesterday sum up how my hands and face looked this morning.

Pre-sunrise, the  Ipswich docks were working several vessels.The winerack and new Stoke Quay developments are clearly visible.

Close up from different vantage point – just by the entrance door to the bridge.

Neptune Quay and UCS are clearly visible.

Worryingly, there are some lumps of concrete on the ground on the landward side of this bridge. A slight chink appears on the seaward side of the Westbound deck. I’ll take my binoculars over on the next visit or wait for late afternoon light to photograph the Eastbound deck. Apart from that, this bridge can look solemn on a dull day but in the golden hours, my, how that concrete glows. With virtually all the images I have been making lately, I am cropping in camera to 5×4. It at least keep my eye in for recreating shots on large format film if nothing else.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring?