24 hours

I spent a pleasant evening on the banks of the Ohio River yesterday with Adam as we tried to get a decent photo of the Huntington, W.Va., East End bridge at night. Nighttime photography has been my curse in the digital age. I was pretty good at it with film. Perhaps I need to move back that way. Adam and I got some decent shots last night, but I'm starting to think I liked night on film a lot better.

Yesterday evening was part of an amazing 24 hours of river sights, most of which I was able to photograph. There was the mv. Transporter in the glare of a cloudless morning with Chesapeake, Ohio, in the background. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get the silvery reflection of its wake. There was the East End bridge in that same glare, lit from above by the sun. There were the photos of the bridge at night, including one of the Lady Mary downbound under it, followed by the James G. Hines upbound.

And this morning, I had to be out and about while a heavy fog lay over parts of the river. I got some decent shots of the mv. Mongah in it. I saw the Mongahas I was driving down Route 2, but I had to travel another mile before I could safely park and shoot. Because traffic was so heavy, I couldn't hear the Mongah coming. I didn't realize it was upon me until I saw the glint of sunlight off something near the pilothouse, perhaps a searchlight.

Finally, there were good morning shots under and near the bridge.

Before I go, an Adam story from yesterday evening. We were at the boat ramp at the mouth of Indian Guyan Creek on the Ohio side. The sun was setting. Adam looked downriver and saw a boat under the 6th Street bridge at downtown Huntington. He said it was either a 1960s Dravo or a boat built by Jeffboat. Mind you, the kid is 10 years old and the bridge was almost three miles away. And most of what he could see was a silhouette. But he nailed it. It was the Hines.

That's not the first time he's done something like that.