The Appeal of Old Machinery

I was able to spend some time in an old mill building in Lowell, MA about a year ago.  I was lucky to be with a photography group and the National Park allowed us into the building about an hour before it opened.  That gave us an opportunity to shoot the looms close up and get some interesting detail and perspective.

You can see in the first picture the rows of looms that stretch for 40-50 feet in one of these buildings.  Everything is run by belts and pulleys where the metal and wood have been polished smooth which gives them a beautiful patina.

Here you see the wooden pulleys with the leather straps that connect the machinery to the main drive shaft that is in another part of the building.  These mills took advantage of the river power in Lowell to provide cheap energy to drive all these buildings.  Locks and canals diverted the Merrimack River to work all these buildings.

It's amazing the intricacies that went into these manufacturing plants.  I think we've forgotten just how complicated what we would now consider the simple mechanical equipment that was used back then.  It was anything but simple and required these mill rooms to be maintained at high humidity to prevent the cotton thread from breaking, making work extremely uncomfortable for the workers.

If you ever get a chance to tour these old facilities, jump at the chance.  This particular building is the Boott Mills in the Lowell National Historic in Lowell, MA.

Relics from the Past

 

Sometimes even rusted junk can take on a new perspective.

So the opening picture is the inside of an old Ford truck sitting under a tree in a local orchard.  After looking at the picture I realized that I probably should have thought twice about just sticking my head into the cab and shooting.  But I'm not sure anything would dare live in there.

What I like about this is the detail one can bring out shooting images of these type of relics.  The rust, decay, and accumulation all come together to give a new perspective, something that isn't obvious just sticking your head in and looking.  I think not seeing the details initially is a combination of the dark interior and worry that a variety of new and interesting diseases and sitting in there just waiting for someone to come along.  This was shot using High Dynamic Range (HDR) techniques.  I wanted to play with all the textures and decay to see what could result.  Sites like this can be a real gold mine for images.



The rust and pits give a nice post apocalyptic feel when you bring out the contrast.  Why I like that may be indicative of a bigger issue that I might have to explore later.  The old truck gives you the classic Ford logo while sitting in the middle of decayed paint and rusted metal.  Decay gives you a gritty feel that's in contrast to a lot of controlled, airbrushed, and smoothed pictures we see a lot today.

Since I talked about post apocalyptic above, I'll end with just that kind of picture.



 Questions or comments?  Just blast away, I'd love to hear from you.  Anyone have similar decay sites they like?

And now it's time to pay the bills.  These pictures, like all the others in this blog, can be purchased.  There is a limited size of prints available if you press the 'Buy Print' button directly below each picture.  If you click on the picture it will take you to my SmugMug site where a much more extensive selection of print options are available.  Everything from standard prints in a large number of sizes to canvas and metal prints ready for hanging on a wall.  If you like something, think about purchasing.  It goes towards feeding the photo addiction.

Cape Elizabeth Maine and Not the Golden Hour

Cape Elizabeth Maine is a beautiful spot just outside of Portland that for photographers is probably best known for Portland Head Light.  I would highly recommend getting yourself to Fort Williams Park and check out this great location.  However, after awhile, the question comes up 'Do I Really Need Another Picture of the Lighthouse?'.  Like any good photographer the answer is pretty much always 'Yes' but that is a problem that will need to be addressed another day.

 

I spent a good deal of time near Two Lights State Park.  It's an interesting area, rocky beach, large section of granite shelf, oh yeah and a great seafood stand.  I of course was there to commune with nature and not the clams.  OK, it was for the clams.   But I have often thought about how to handle pictures during the middle of the day.  The standard rule of thumb is the only good light is near sunrise and sunset certainly makes sense, but let's face it, during the summer the sun comes up at about 5:45a at that location, you've got a 2 hour travel time unless you live in Portland, and the need to be ready at least 45 minutes to an hour prior to sunrise then you need to get up about 2:30a.  A little too early for routine work.  So mid-day light starts looking better and better.



So you get creative.  High Dynamic Range processing (HDR), a study of black and white conversion, and you should develop an affinity for rocks.  I feel you can actually get some very interesting material by working the contrast in the deep shadows you get during that time of day and use multiple exposure to bring out the details.  The image above uses three exposures separated by 1.5 ev and tonemapped with Photomatix Pro.  For those of you who are here for the pictures you can ignore the previous 'blah, blah'.

The rock formations here are really quite interesting.  Instead of the normal granite of Maine, it's actually some form of sedimentary rock.  From a photographic point of view, it gives you interesting structure that you can work to your advantage, especially in the middle of the day.  The high contrast along with all the rock detail just begs for a black and white conversion.  That's what I was trying to do here.

Let me know what you think of these pictures.  How do the rest of you handle getting pictures during midday?

And now it's time to pay the bills.  These pictures, like all the others in this blog, can be purchased.  There is a limited size of prints available if you press the 'Buy Print' button directly below each picture.  If you click on the picture it will take you to my SmugMug site where a much more extensive selection of print options are available.  Everything from standard prints in a large number of sizes to canvas and metal prints ready for hanging on a wall.  If you like something, think about purchasing.  It goes towards feeding the photo addiction.

Marblehead on the Fourth of July

Marblehead Fourth of July

The coastal town of Marblehead, MA has some unique traditions, one of which is 4th of July.  As it has one of the best harbors in New England, much of the life of the town centers on the harbor and the many ships that reside there in the spring and summer.  So, it's only natural that the 4th of July celebration would also center there.  Fireworks are shot from a barge at the mouth of the harbor, with thousands of people lining up from Fort Sewall, down through Crocker Park, to the Causeway and then back up the Neck on the other side of the harbor.  Preparation for fireworks in this town involves a great deal of cannon fire, because you always need to find an excuse so that you can shoot off cannons.

I was sitting at the edge of Fort Sewall with a view of the mouth of the harbor across to Chandler Hovey Park on the other side.  This shot was one of the first fireworks of the night and the sun had just gone down a short time before and so the residual from the sun still gave a dark blue glow to the sky. We were treated to displays such as this with Marblehead Light in the background.  Unfortunately, a strong thunderstorm swept across the North Shore and cut the display short while we all ran for cover.

To end, I thought I would try something a little different.  Fireworks in black and white.  This is across the harbor at one of the yacht clubs.  Let me know what you think of this treatment.

These pictures, like all the others in this blog, can be purchased.  There is a limited size of prints available if you press the 'Buy Print' button directly below each picture.  If you click on the picture it will take you to my SmugMug site where a much more extensive selection of print options are available.  Everything from standard prints in a large number of sizes to canvas and metal prints ready for hanging on a wall.

Moonrise Over Chandler Hovey Park

The harbor of Marblehead, MA is one of the gems of the New England coast.  This natural harbor is protected on three sides by the mainland, a virtual island called 'The Neck', and the causeway leading to the Neck.  At the end of the neck you can find Chandler Hovey Park where Marblehead Light is found.  One could say that Marblehead Light is an acquired taste is it's a very 'functional' lighthouse.  No frills, extraneous cutesy houses, or classic whitewashed buildings.  It's just a light on top of a tower with a frame to keep it from blowing over.

On the 4th of July I was privileged to be sitting at Fort Sewall during the fireworks when the moon began to rise behind the lighthouse.  The dark red moon was quite a site with the lights around the harbor, boats, and fireworks.  Of course what isn't shown in this picture is about 10 minutes later a crack of thunder signaled that a strong thunderstorm was moving across the North Shore resulting in a shortened fireworks show as we all ran for cover.
 
What else did people do on the 4th?  Let me know what happened and share your pictures.

Other pictures from this years 4th of July in Marblehead can be found in the gallery on my website.  Feel free to explore and comment.  All pictures are for sale in a variety of different formats.