2013, Day 221 - Trolling

I was hoping for another colorful sunset this evening so I camped out by the Fremont bridge to wait.  It didn't happen, we had good clouds but no color.  Still, I didn't want to have waited around with nothing to show for it so I went exploring.  I hadn't intended to take any pictures away from the river but I loved the truck perched on top of the asphalt and this might be my favorite shot of the evening.  I love cloudy summer days even if the humidity is out of control.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f8, merged layers of 0.6, 1.3, 2.5, 5, and 10 sec @ 100 ISO

2012, Day 308 - Surprise!

This would be such a great venue for a slasher flick.  Creepy hallways, dead end rooms, leaking ceilings, it would be ideal.  Just like when the bad guy pops out to scare the crap out of you this post was written in the past and posted to the future because I am likely sitting on a plane when this goes live.  The next photos you see should be of beautiful Cambodia.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, 2 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 299 - Up the spout

I just can't seem to resist Satsop, I suspect many are tired of seeing these images but my blog allows me to indulge my whims.  This is the reactor chamber, filled with ducts and rails like blood vessels and nerve endings.  The whole site seems to be some kind of giant, dead and decaying but still impressive in almost every way.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, 2.5 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 296 - Swivel

This is where the magic happens, the reactor room that would be filled with steam and a rather unhealthy dose of radiation.  There were steel plates laying on the floor and it smelled of a foundry in the confines of this cavernous space.  The teams had been back cutting out more scrap and dragging it outside to be broken down into smaller pieces.  Those parallel yellow beams dominating the top of the image are part of a crane that could pass from one end to the other while rotating in the circular room.  There is so much to take in at a place like Satsop, I hope I can go back soon so I can try to take it all in again.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, merged layers of 2 and 8 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 294 - Junction

I wish I had the wherewithal to ask about this room.  It is a roofless alcove with the remnants of I-beams and pipes cut off at the walls.  Why build a room where everything comes together?  Why reinforce with I-beams?  Was this where steam traveled to make power or was this a junction on the way to one of the cooling towers?  Would there have been valves and pumps here?  I suspect that the reason the room is now empty is for the value of the scrap metal.  Maybe I will remember to ask if I make it back...

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, 1/100 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 293 - Take a break

In one of the converted buildings at Satsop there are massive spaces that have been leased out to various companies.  This level is leased to a steel fabricator and as we walked through this table caught my eye.  Placed under a lamp so that is gets decent light in the middle of a giant open floor, it just looked peaceful.  Amid the sounds of trucks rumbling in and out two floors below I can imagine the chairs filled by people laughing while they take their breaks from the hard dirty work they do every day.  Maybe they flip through a magazine, play a game of cards, or just chat to pass the time.

Canon 1D X, Canon 70-200/f2.8L IS Mark II
160mm, f2.8, 1/10 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 291 - Gateway to hell

Before you is the door into the reactor chamber.  We were told that the due to the heat and the radiation one could only be allowed in for six minutes at a time.  Given that it took climbing a number of stairs I suspect that would not allow you to get much work done during the safety interval.  Outside Brian Bonham and Nicole S Young are chatting while setting up a shot but being the sneaky person I am, I hurried down the hall can captured this photograph.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
27mm, f5.6, 0.8 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 290 - Bleeding sparks

There are workers pulling scrap metal out of Satsop Nuclear Power Plant; the income from the scrap helps maintain the site but it also removes some of the history.  I guess it is a necessary evil.  These workers were toiling in the rain, cutting the salvageable scrap in order to make pennies for each dollar invested.  Seems like a lot of work for relatively little reward.

Canon 1D X, Canon 70-200/f2.8L IS Mark II
200mm, f5.6, 1/640 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 289 - Nuclear moon

It is really hard to resist sharing pictures from last week's trip to Satsop.  I have visions of it when I sleep, the place was amazing and overwhelming.  This is another shot of the interior of the completed cooling tower.  Thanks to the distortion of the lens you can see the walkway straight ahead and part of the wall behind the camera.  While the effect is odd I like that you can see the entire opening of the tower and the high fog hovering at the top.  The water dripping down the inside of the walls and the texture of the concrete is just remarkable.  When it was quite you could hear the echos of people breathing, coughing, mumbling to themselves, their footsteps, and the sharp clicks of camera mirrors flipping up and down throughout.  It was like being inside a giant living clock.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f11, merged layers of 1/50, 1/13 and 1/6 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 288 - Get in my belly

Can you see all the little bitty people?  From right to left you can see Nicole S Young, our guide Nate, Chris Germano, Brian Bonham, and Brian Matiash.  I love the sense of scale they provide and while many in the group wanted shots unadulterated with people I thought they were great.  True, Brian Matiash is no model and this image shows him to be the menacing dwarf that he is, but I think it helps everyone who has never been to such a site appreciate how massive it is.  Now I keep imaging Ryan Reynold's severed head falling and cutting through the tower like in the X-Men prequel thanks to my little sister, much appreciated Laura!

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f11, 1/13, 1/6 and 1/3 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 287 - Ascend

Under normal circumstances we would have been allowed to climb to the top of the cooling tower but because of the rain they were reluctant to permit the climb.  Amy Heiden was probably the most disappointed in the group but because there was so much high fog the visibility wouldn't have been very good although I suppose that might have made things interesting as well.  Nevertheless, we all had fun trying to capture the massive scale of these monolithic structures.  When I was looking at the tower these stairs reminded me of a giant zipper in appearance.

Canon 1D X, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
24mm, f5.6, 1/250 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 286 - Straining

Today I had an epic day of shooting with Brian Matiash, Nicole S Young, Arno Jenkins, Christopher Germano, Brian Bonham, Amy Heiden, Joe Azure, and Tressa Crozier at the Satsop Nuclear Power Plant.  Construction started in the early 80s and but the project was abandoned and is now used as an industrial park.  The structures still stand although some components are being removed for its scrap value.  It's too bad that it cannot be better preserved but at the same time remarkable that it is preserved at all.

This is a composite of the last photos of the day inside the unfinished second cooling tower.  The weather was great and terrible at the same time because it was raining lightly and we had low hanging fog all day but it lends a dreamy quality to the photos.  Unfortunately it also means that we all got pretty we and that many of the outdoor photo opportunities couldn't be fully realized.  Oh well, it was still tons of fun and it gives us all an excuse to return.

Canon 1D X, Canon 16-35/f2.8L Mark II
16mm, f5.6, merged layers of 1/80, 1/40 and 1/20 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 282 - Weathered

The other night I just happened upon this small old industrial area.  It is tucked away near a small highway and the train freight yard.  The buildings have this great close-set old time look, it looks almost like the Hollywood old west to my eye.  Unfortunately time was short and this was the best shot taken on my brief stop but it is somewhere I plan on returning to photograph more when time permits.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
60mm, f5.6, 5 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 281 - Depot

I love exploring the world at night.  Everything looks so different and you notice details you might not otherwise.  Scenes like this are fun to explore, I wish Waldo was hidden in here somewhere so that I could give everyone a reason to really examine all the little details.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
24mm, f5.6, 1 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 280 - Unloaded

This evening I was craving a photo adventure.  I haven't had time to go out just to shoot in quite a while so after running some errands I ran down to a big freight yard.  There seems to be a lot of heavy industry around there and I couldn't help but notice this loading bay.  I loved the exposed timbers of the roof, the concrete, the corrugated metal, it is a feast of texture and the contrast is great.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-105/f4L IS
35mm, f5.6, 1 sec @ 400 ISO

2012, Day 275 - Three points

It's a desaturated kind of day.  I am not sure why, maybe because I've been on the run all day and I want a little calm and clarity.  Because there have been so many distractions that despite my constant movement there seems to be a inordinately small amount of accomplishment.  Don't get me wrong, a lot happened and it was all addressed properly but it has been a day of rushing from one appointment to another.

I took this picture in a spring time exploration of North Portland's industrial  waterfront.  There are so many pockets of heavy industry with many little circuitous roads to access them that one needs the spirit of adventure on their shoulder.  Some places are devoid of interest and filled with generic and soulless warehouses and others are like this, old but well maintained.  I am so happy for the shorter days, it's time to hit the road again soon.

Canon 1Ds Mark II, Sigma 50/f1.4EX
50mm, f5.6, 1/2 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 263 - Mugged

It's odd that sometimes an everyday scene makes a good photograph, assuming that you like the image below.  I liked the light, the city in the background, spaghetti of power lines, the puddles of street light, the coffee sign, the light spilling out of doorway, all those little elements.  I wish that the street was lined with vintage cars because it would have transported the scene into the past very nicely.  Conversely, it looks like somewhere that you might get mugged but this is Portland, it's safe, fortunately :)

Canon 1D X, Canon 50/f1.2L
50mm, f5.6, 1.6 sec @ 320 ISO

2012, Day 252 - Desolate

Can you see Brian bending over?  He is SO slutty, like a cat in heat!  This photo was taken with his assistance in the form of a borrowed lens, a lovely tilt-shift piece of optical genius that can do their like correct for distorted perspective.  It was a chilly evening in late winter, the rain had blessedly stopped for a couple days and we managed an evening of adventuring around Portland's east waterfront industrial area.  Winter in Portland is nice, people are active but they venture out only when necessary so the city if often quiet and there is a peace that is unusual in most cities.  I am rather eager for winter's return but before that I want a long mild fall.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 24/f3.5L TSE Mark II
24mm, f8, 8 sec @ 500 ISO

2012, Day 130 - Loading

This photo was taken during the second Portland Google+ Photowalk a couple of weeks ago.  It is the old loading bay at Schoolhouse Electric building.  I like the light and shadow with the texture of the brick, it makes for a visually rich photograph.  On the walk I primarily used my 100mm macro lens and for this shot it performed admirably because the sun was quite bright so it helped to isolate the building from the rest of the landscape which helped to obtain a more pleasing contrast in the diffuse indirect light.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f5.6, 1/160 sec @ 200 ISO

2012, Day 124 - Mirror

It is amazing what you see if you look through the right lens.  That statement is both figurative and literal, if you look through a lens long enough you can start to see objects through that series of ground glass elements before you even start to compose but there are times when you bring your camera to your eye and the world shifts.  Everything looks different.  Macro lenses are great for that experience.  Textures jump out at you, demanding your attention.  A line of ants marching across the sidewalk becomes a miniature military maneuver.

Our eyes are so sophisticated that when we look through a camera our vision is impaired.  The same is true with film or a camera sensor, our eyes see so much more than they are capable of capturing.  Conversely we can use these same limited tools to push the boundaries of what we see and how we see it.

This photo was taken on Sunday's photowalk.  I almost didn't notice the reflection in these windows but I glanced up and had to stop.  I like the strong lines and high contrast.

Canon 1Ds Mark III, Canon 100/f2.8L IS
100mm, f5.6, 1/800 sec @ 200 ISO