Weetman’s Bridge
A landscape photography blog by Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire based landscape photographer Rob Thorley Photography.
The text for this blog post could almost be identical to the post I made of Essex Bridge, back in 2019. Once more a flick through the socials had put a local location in the spotlight that I’d never heard of.
Like Essex Bridge, Weetman’s Bridge is a lovely arched bridge that also spans the River Trent, but it’s a little further downstream at Little Haywood.
Weetman’s Bridge, Little Haywood.
As well as generally being interested to photograph the location the time of year (January) was a bonus, or at least that’s what my research was leading me to believe. I wanted to try and photograph the bridge with the arches bathed in the early morning sunlight. The weather forecast also looked like it was playing ball with a clear, crisp winters sunrise forecast.
Once again I did a bit of planning on PhotoPills, and estimated that thirty minutes to an hour after sunrise I had the potential to get the light in the direction I wanted. What I wasn’t 100% sure on was whether the light would be too harsh by the time it eventually lit the arches.
I went belt and braces and arrived before sunrise. I like to call that being keen rather than doubting my own research. :-) That said if you do go to visit this spot it really is a “park and shoot” location. The lay-by is literally ten yards out of shot to the right of where I stood to take this image.
All in all I was pleased with the result. I also took a long exposure smoothing out the water but I’m not sure about it if I’m honest. There was a bit of movement in the trees with that one, so I did need to do a bit of blending. I’ve popped it in my Cannock Chase gallery if you want to take a look at that one and see what you think.
You can view more images from my gallery of other Staffordshire locations.
