Description
Kids these days have amazing video games. I remember when the 8-bit Frogger game came out for the Atari 2600 game console. The graphics weren’t as amazing as going to the nickel arcade, but it was still better than my friend’s cassette-tape-drive version for the Commodore 64, which took about fifteen minutes to load. The hours spent playing Frogger definitely contributed to the success in this image.
The Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam is Frogger in real life. To get to the center of the bridge, I had to jump a Jersey barrier, cross the bike lane, sprint across three traffic lanes, jump another Jersey barrier, and finally position myself on a zero clearance platform between two active trolley lines–all without getting smashed. It’s all about timing, pre-planning, and expedited movements. I had my host in Amsterdam, Marjolijn, help spot for trolleys–the main concern, since they are fast, virtually silent and could easily squish me. After studying the traffic flow for about thirty minutes, I knew I’d have at best twelve seconds to make the run, set the camera up, wait for the bridge to stop shaking, make the image, and reverse course back to safety. I wouldn’t recommend doing this, but I successfully completed the gauntlet three times to get this image. I find it interesting that the trolley lines aren’t parallel to the center of the image–something you’d never know unless standing in the middle.
