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Taking a break, enjoying the road.
Author: Nick Roberts
Hank Botterman Visits The Ohio River Bridges Project During Safety Week
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Yesterday Hank Botterman Corporate Director of Safety for Walsh Construction was touring the Ohio River Bridges Project with the ORB Safety Team. One of the men he met and talked with was Lee Carson the Crew Boat Captain. They discussed safety precautions that Lee takes for when the conditions on the river are challenging as well as sharing their thoughts regarding safety on the river.
The Surveyor… William Moylan
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The Surveyor in this image is William Moylan. I met William last year while he was surveying the placement of a caisson in pier 6 during it’s installation. I shot some photos of him that morning and ultimately chose one for a blog post. William saw the photo and thanked me for sharing it with the world. At the time he said to me that no one ever takes pictures of the surveyor. Later as we got to know each other he told me that his Mom in Ireland was able to see what he did for a living and the job he was working on because of that photo.
I was waiting for the crew boat yesterday when I saw William and a Carpenter working together. I liked the angle that I had and started shooting them discussing the task they were both working on. In this image they are making plans for William to ride up in the aerial lift to check the platform being placed for a hammerhead form that the carpenters are building on pier 8.
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In this image you can see the floor of the hammerhead form that William and the Carpenter are leveling. William has climbed out onto the form floor with his measuring equipment and the Carpenter is moving into place underneath the form to make leveling adjustments.
Both of these images are three frame bracket sets of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures that have been merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3. For the top image I had to sue 100% anti-ghosting to eliminate the ghosting of the figures. In the second image I was able to get by with only 60% anti-ghosting. My advice regarding anti-ghosting is to strive for the lowest amount you can use in order to minimize halos and still achieve a reasonable final result.
Climbing Up Inside The Tower Crane on Pier Four of The Ohio River Bridges Project
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Last week I was cleared by the safety manager to enter and climb the tower crane that has been installed on pier four of the Ohio River Bridges Project. The tower crane is approximately 100 feet tall now and will eventually be extended up to around 200 feet in order to build the bridge towers for the northern tower of the downtown span. Each section of the crane tower is ten feet tall and affords me a place to stand and shoot from as I climb up. I only went up six sections but with the additional height of the tower base I was able to shoot from around eighty feet above the river. The view of the project from there is amazing and I can’t wait to climb higher the next time I’m out there. Eventually I will be able to climb all the way up to the crane itself and see the project as the crane operator sees it.
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In this second image you can see the base of the eastern leg of the northern bridge tower and the shadow of the tower crane. I think I was around forty feet above the base but I’m not sure exactly which level I was on when I shot this image. The river was pretty muddy from the heavy rains that went through upstream from Louisville a few days earlier. The brown shapes on the water are driftwood branches and logs that are swept into the river whenever the river rises.
Not much more to say about these images except that they are both HDR shot handheld in a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures. They were merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3.
Work On Southbound I-65 Bridges and Roadway Progresses
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The southbound I-65 work is progressing well as the Walsh Construction crews build the new bridges and roadway that will replace the old I-65 infrastructure. In this photo you can see the steel bridge decking being installed in the center of the image while an Ironworker welds the supporting angle iron in place. I chose this image because I like the way the figures are arranged from the foreground through the frame. I also like the way the welding arc is sparking and the way the welder is positioned in the image.
As in most of my work this too is a HDR image created from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV exposures. I had to use an anti-ghosting setting of 100% in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to address the many different poses the figures were in between frames. The ability to shoot handheld images of people movin
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This second image also shows the Ironworkers welding and placing the steel bridge decking. The decking will support the concrete during the pouring of the roadway after the Ironworkers place reinforcing rebar across the completed bridge deck prior to pouring of the concrete. Once again you can see the power of the NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 anti-ghosting feature, especially in the way it has rendered the woman’s leg as she kicks the steel decking into place. As in the previous image I had to use a setting of 100% anti-ghosting in order to freeze the action and avoid ghosting artifacts.
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I really liked the way the pre-stressed concrete bridge beams cast their shadows on the ground below them and the strong movement their placement gave to this image. This is also near Slugger Field where the new roadway is taking shape overhead. Once these bridges and roadways are completed traffic will be moved over onto this new roadway and demolition will begin on the old southbound I-65 infrastructure which will be replaced with new bridges and roadway. Once again I followed my normal HDR workflow of NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3 processing.
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This final image in today’s post is once again from beneath the concrete bridge beams for the new southbound I-65. I shot this using my 12-24 mm Nikkor lens and decided to take it into Photoshop CS5 after merging the bracket set in order to correct the lens distortion inherent in such a wide angle shot. This too is a HDR image created from a three handheld frame bracket set merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3.
