For 20 years I've been crossing the Bonner Bridge to surf along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The bridge spans over Oregon Inlet and connects Hatteras Island to the northern beaches. Over those years I've driven north on highway 12 countless times, whizzing past the row of fishermen that crowd the catwalk along part of the bridge.
With an onshore wind there were no waves to surf and I was roaming the Outer Banks taking photos. As I started to cross the bridge heading north, I noticed a lone fisherman had waded about 200 yards out in to to shallows and he was fishing in thigh deep water. I thought it could make a great image and continued across the 2.5 mile bridge until I could turn around and go back.
When I arrived at the parking area on the south side of the bridge the fisherman was still fishing in the shallows. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. I took about 3 frames and then the fisherman started to wade back to shore. It was at this point I noticed the people fishing from the bridge's short catwalk and that there were people fishing from the base of the bridge's support structure.
In the image above, a man fishing from the support structure of the Bonner Bridge looks up at those fishing from the catwalk above (notice the fishing lines coming down from above). As it turns out, this image was more interesting to me than the few frames I shot of my intended subject.
I'm sure there have been people fishing from the support structure during the many years I've been driving over the bridge. Had it not been for the fisherman out in the shallows, I'd have made another trip across the bridge never aware of what was going on below.
