Tag: Construction workers

The Day Begins When The Crew Boat Arrives

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Crew Boat Picking Up Workers At the Start of The Workday.
Crew Boat Picking Up Workers At the Start of The Workday.

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Each morning after the crew meets to go over the day’s activities and assignments many of them are transported to their worksites by Lee the crew boat operator. I have learned that Lee has a good handle on what is taking place at all the pier locations on the river, he know when something significant is going to happen and often directs me to interesting activities throughout the day.

I chose this image to show Lee’s boat arriving to carry the workers to their jobs for the day. I liked the way the boat’s wake smoothly rippled across the river and the contrast of the safety vests on the workers with the deep shades of blue and green in the sky and river. Seeing the scale of the project is always difficult but whenever there are people in the scene it becomes clear what a monumental undertaking this is.

I shot this in HDR and processed it using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3.

 

Concrete Pour Equipment

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Concrete Pump Boom
Concrete Pump Boom

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This image shows the concrete pump boom transferring concrete to a pier pour in the middle of the river. The concrete is first transferred from the delivery trucks to the concrete pump which is sitting on shore. The concrete pump then pushes the wet concrete through the large pipe on the boom to the concrete placement workers who direct it’s placement in the concrete form in the river.

I chose this composition to emphasize the length that the material must be transported in order to make the piers in the river. I shot a three frame bracket set of -2, o and +2 EV and then processed the final image by merging them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. After merging them and applying some basic tone-mapping adjustments I returned the image to Aperture 3 for final processing.

Concrete Vibrator Operator at Work During the Pier Pour.
Concrete Vibrator Operator at Work During the Pier Pour.

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In this image the vibrator operator is using a control box he is wearing around his waist to vibrate the wet concrete and eliminate any air pockets that may have formed as the concrete was placed in the form. The metal rebar that he is standing inside will connect the next pice of concrete to this base after additional forms are attached as the tower base rises out of the river. This particular concrete pour required 53 truck loads of concrete, 537 cubic yards of material, and took nearly an entire workday to complete.

This image is also a three frame bracket set processed with NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3.

Lowering the Caisson into the Pier Casing

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Lowering the Caisson into the Casing.
Lowering the Caisson into the Casing.

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This HDR image shows the 60 foot long caisson as it is being guided, by the Ironworkers and Carpenters, into place inside the pier casing. After placing the caisson the next step will be to fill the pier with concrete. The steel casing sits on the river bottom and then the caisson fits into a rock socket has been bored 30 feet below the casing into the bedrock of the river bottom. This makes the total length on the pier nearly 60 feet from the surface to the base. The iron cylinder is there to both guide the drill during drilling and to form a protective shell for the pier once the bridge is built.

This image is from a three frame bracket set using -2, 0 and +2 EV settings. I merged the bracket set in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and because the workers were moving quite a bit I had to apply 80% anti-ghosting to isolate them and remove the ghosts of their arm movement. After merging and some mild tone-mapping in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 I returned the merged file to Aperture 3 where I completed my processing by adjusting contrast, alignment, sharpening and the individual color channels to achieve the look I wanted for the final image.

Early Morning In Waterfront Park

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Big Four Morning
Big Four Morning

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I shot this image on Saturday morning last week before the crowds arrived. The morning was relatively calm and the park had only a few people in it at that time. There were many people walking up on the bridge to catch the first moments of the day as others were busy exercising on the lawn around the swing garden. I like the peaceful feeling that the early morning light gives the image.

Saturday Morning Boot Camp
Saturday Morning Boot Camp

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This is one of my favorite angles to photograph the Swing Garden and the Louisville Skyline from the Big Four Bridge. I like the way the geometric layout of the park comes out from this vantage point. On the right can be seen the barges and equipment that are being used to build the piers for the new Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Crossing. Walsh Construction seems to be taking great pains to keep the job site clean and orderly which is their way of showing respect for the Louisville Waterfront Park and it’s wonderful features such as the Swing Garden and the Lincoln Memorial with the wonderful sculptures by Louisville’s native son and nationally renowned sculptor, Mr. Ed Hamilton.

This image is a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV HDR image created using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3. After merging in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 I returned the HDR image to Aperture 3 for additional adjustment to the contrast, color channels, sharpening and minor cropping. I also added a slight vignette to the final image to lead the viewer’s eye into the frame.

In the coming months I will be sharing images from the Ohio River Bridges Project as I shoot it from inside the actual job sites. I will be sharing photos of not only the physical progress of the project; I will also be showing the men and women who are doing the work to build this much anticipated bridge and it’s transformation of the Louisville waterfront. I hope you will follow along as work progresses and sign up for email announcements when I post new work; to do that simply follow SpeedDemon2.com via the sign up box at the top of the page.