Category: Architecture

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery (Part 2)

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #2

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image is another from my exploration of the abandoned distillery I talked about yesterday. I am very curious about the purpose of this structure and will probably go back there soon to further explore the site to see if I can figure out it’s purpose.

This is a bracket set of +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, that I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then used the Deep preset as my starting point before adjusting the black and the white points, the contrast and the structure sliders. I then took it back into Aperture 3 where I boosted the vibrancy and details slightly before adding a vignette and some sharpening.

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery

Posted on by Nick Roberts
HDR Panorama of a Gazebo and Pool at Old Taylor Distillery
Temple to the Whiskey Spirits

Yesterday after lunch I decided to take a motorcycle ride down to the State Capitol in Frankfort. The weather was much nicer than it had been in July and I needed to get out of the studio. As is often the case when I take one of my rides I had no particular destination in mind I simply wanted to feel the road under my wheels and to savor the joy I get from riding my Harley. I found a little road outside Frankfort that followed a small stream and decided it needed to be explored. As I rode along this road I came upon an abandoned distillery complex that I wanted to photograph. I pulled off near one of the gates to the property, got out my camera and tripod, and started looking for a place to access the property.

I spent nearly an hour probing the fence around the property but could not find an access point to the complex. I could see through the trees and brush along the fence that the buildings were collapsing and that there were a lot of photo ops but since I couldn’t get a clear view of the place I decided to take a few shots through the brush and move on. I headed further along this road when I came another group of whiskey warehouses that have been engulfed by the forest but that property was truly unaccessible and there was no place to park the bike. I’ll have to go back there again and see if I can find a way in though because they are so interesting with the forest slowly consuming them.

Down the road a little farther I came over a rise and saw yet another abandoned distillery complex. There were several interesting buildings as well as a place to park my bike that would be safe and keep it out of the photos I knew I was going to be shooting. I found an easy access point into the complex and started exploring the grounds. I love to shoot derelict and abandoned industrial subjects and this place was a treasure trove of rusted equipment and decaying structures. As I went around one of the buildings I spied an ornate roof poking through the small trees that have begun to reclaim this property. I went up the small path leading into the woods and was astonished to find the remains of the largest gazebo I’ve ever seen. It covered a stone pool that may have been a swimming pool or simply a water tank; it was impossible to know but it must have been something incredibly opulent when it was in use. It is at least 100 feet long and 30 feet wide with stone columns supporting the roof. I went into the structure and was amazed at the design and craftsmanship that I saw. At the far end was a circular area and above it stood this huge circular roof with a massive iron chandelier hanging above the water. There were steps leading down to the walkway around the circular pool so I went down to that level and set up my tripod to shoot the scene.

Once I was down on the lower landing I realized that even with my 18mm lens I could not capture the scene as I was seeing it so I decided to shoot it as a vertical panorama. I knew immediately that I was going to shoot bracketed exposures because the light level inside and outside the structure was too wide a range for a single exposure. I started at +2 and watched my histogram to be sure that I had a complete range of exposures for later HDR processing. As it turned out I only needed four exposures to get the histogram where I wanted it +2, +1, 0, and -1 exposure values at f8 worked well. I shot four frames at these settings and then repositioned the camera vertically and shot another set of four exposure. I wound up only needing three vertical frames to capture the scene for my panorama.

Once I was back at my studio I loaded each bracket set into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and merged them using the default setting in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before saving them back to Aperture 3. Once I had all three vertical frames merged into HDR images I took them into Photoshop CS5  to merge them into the panorama. After cropping and saving the panorama I returned the panorama to NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I adjusted it using the Realistic 2 preset and made my initial adjustments to the tonality of the image before retuning the image to Aperture 3 where I straightened the horizon, boosted the detail and clarity and did my sharpening.

Window to a Spirit World

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Window to a Spirit World
Window to a Spirit World

This is another bracketed shot of five exposures processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3. By using five exposures I was able to capture both the exterior detail of the brick and stonework and the barrel inside the building. I returned the tone mapped image to Aperture 3 where I cropped and straightened it as well as adjusted the sharpness, vibrancy and exposure slightly.

The blacks you see are a mold that forms on everything around a distillery. It is nurtured by the evaporation of the alcohol as it ages in the barrels. The distillery folks refer to the evaporation as the “Angels Share” which probably has it’s roots in the religious beliefs of the Scots, Irish and Welsh people who brought the distillation of whisky to Kentucky in the 18th century as America pushed westward from the coastal settlements.

The image is a symmetrical composition because the window is centered in the frame while within the window the barrel on the left side of the opening shifts the viewer’s eye and adds movement to the photo.

Resting Spirits

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Whisky barrel warehouse
Resting Spirits

Yesterday morning I joined 25 or 30 fellow Louisville Photographic Society members for a tour and photo walk at the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States, Buffalo Trace Distillery, located in Frankfort, Kentucky. The tour included a great deal of the lore and history of bourbon making and it’s deep roots in the central Kentucky region. We were very fortunate to have as our guide a third generation employee of the distillery Freddie who gave us a behind the scenes look at the distillery and the history of whiskey in Kentucky. Freddie took us into the warehouses and explained the way that the whisky ages in the barrels and why they are placed where they are in the warehouse. The barrels placed at the lowest levels are there for a long slow aging process that imparts the characteristic flavors of the charred oak barrel and the tannins in the oak to the bourbon inside.

I shot this image as a bracketed set of exposures for HDR processing. I first processed it as a color HDR image in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I tone mapped it using the realistic preset before returning it to Aperture 3 for final adjustment of the vibrancy, clarity and sharpening. Once I had completed that I created a duplicate image and reopened the duplicate in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I used the Black and White preset to convert it. I then applied a yellow filter which enhanced the highlights and deepened the shadows.

The image below is the color version that I started with to create the Black and White photo. With this image I am showing you that there are sometimes several ways to create a memorable image by taking advantage of the tone mapping ability of NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then applying different presets to the final image.

Resting Spirits #2

I think the composition is strong in both the images due to the perspective and the leading lines taking the viewer’s eye down the corridor to the lights in the background. The HDR process allowed me to capture the detail in the structure and the barrels which would not have been possible in a single exposure.

Thunderboomer

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Thunderboomer

I shot this image last night just as a storm front was passing through Louisville. I shot seven brackets E.V. +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3, -4 in order to capture the full range of tonality in the scene. As I have said before I watch my histogram closely to be sure that I have no blown out highlights which for this scene required four stops underexposure.

I processed these frames in both NIK HDR Efex Pro and NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and discovered that the later version, NIK HDR Efex Pro 2, is superior in it’s anti-ghosting capabilities as well as it’s tone mapping. I used the Realistic (Deep) preset and adjusted the tonality slider slightly while in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I then returned the image to Aperture 3 where I tweaked the vibrancy slider and then sharpened the image. After this morning’s experiment I am sold on the upgrade to NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and recommend it for anyone wanting to process bracketed HDR images.