Industrial Photography

I love industrial photography. I work in the oil industry of Alberta, Canada. I have a fabrication shop at my disposal when I feel like taking some steel and spark shots.

I think if I could find enough companies needing this type of photography on a regular basis, I could make a go at a business based on this type of photography and head shots of the management.

Nothing is as slick as a plasma table for cutting custom parts from plate steel. I'm always amazed when I watch this thing in action.

After tacking the pipe together, the welder puts in the root pass. This takes quite a bit of time and is really interesting to watch.

You can see the light from the welding spark shining though the bottom half of the joint where the root pass has not been put in yet.

The pipe is connected to a spinner that rolls it around for the welder so he can concentrate on making a good pass and not on the position he is in.


After the root pass is in the pipe is moved over to the sub arc welder where the fill passes are done quickly and easily.

There is no smoke, or spark with this procedure. Just a whole lot of heat. No special training is needed to operate this welding machine. All you need is a quick rundown on how the unit works and what to do. Away you go. Saved yourself 4 or 5 years of schooling

This photo is of the cutting and beveling procedure. I added it because I really like how it looks. The pipe is cut to length and beveled to make for proper welding all at one machine.

These photos were really fun to take today. I'll have to try to take more of these in the future.

.

More Thoughts On My Canon 17-85mm Kit Lens

I've had the summer now to play more with my Canon 17-85mm lens and have discovered it's limitations. Good to know so I can work within them.

The photo of my daughter on the right here was taken with my 17-85mm and is what sparked my interest back into using this lens more.

It's sharp and the color and contrast out of the camera were really nice.

I used it quite a bit for most of the summer and have found it's limitations.

Distance. That's pretty much it. The farther away your subject is, the worse the lens performs.

 In this photo of my son at the park, he's just not that sharp. He is about 30 feet from me here. I had focused and recomposed and I'm sure of the focus.


It just seems that as the subject gets farther away, the lens loses some quality. It was not enough for me not to use this image, I still like the image, it just doesn't have the sharpness that the above one of my daughter has.

The shutter speed was plenty fast enough on this one as well so no help there.

Then we have this one that is sharp again. I'm only a few feet, maybe 5 away from the subject here and everything with him looks nice and sharp.

So this helped to further my assumption about the subject distance.

I think I may just have to save for some L series lenses after all. But at least I'm not just lusting after them.





Chris.

A Family Wedding!

This past weekend we had the first local wedding in our family since my wife and I got married. On her side anyway. There was another a couple of years ago but it was a distance wedding. We just couldn't make it to that one.

Anyway this one was my wife's cousin and his fiancee. I've been waiting for this one for a few years already. We knew it was coming though. They are perfect together.

Both my kids were part of the wedding party. My daughter, one of the flower girls and my son handed out programs to all the guests as they arrived. They looked so good and so grown up. I wasn't the photographer, I will never photograph a wedding. Way too much stress. Also, I'm just not set up for weddings. I need some faster glass than what I have. At least with portrait work, I can control the light if needed. That said, I took my share of photos while I was shooting video for the happy couple.

Here are some of my favorites from the day.

 

Ready to go! All dressed up in their new dress and suit. When did they get so grown up?

 

Mother of the groom pinning flowers on my Brother in Law Curtis who served as one of the ushers.

 

Tears of Joy.

 

Just seconds before being husband and wife.

 

The kiss!

 

Jared and Lainie Gratrix. Larger than Life.

 

Lainie and the girls.

 

Jared, Lainie and the helper kids. Is it just me or does five kids look good on them?

 

Head table decoration.

 

I'll just have the gravy please.

 

Dinner kiss as demanded by the clinking of the glasses.

 

Someone is getting roasted by his best man.

 

 

The Grooms Uncle Mickey. My Father In Law. My best poporatzi photo of the night.

 

My daughter enthralled by the happy couple dancing their first dance as husband and wife.

 

 

Grandma and her grandkids. My kids.

 

 

God Mother and God Daughter.

These are my favorites of the night that I took. A good time was definitely had by all. It's about time Jared and Lainie got married. They've been perfect for each other as long as I've know them both.

Congrats to you both. I hope you have the best life together possible.

Chris.

Pen As Seen By My iPhone

Well that's that then.

This was more just to post from my iphone than anything else.

Chris.

Fall Morning Drizzle

 

It's getting much cooler here in Edmonton now. 1C when I got in my truck and raining. Winter is coming so we might as well embrace the cold.

As I was shivering waiting for my truck to warm up a bit, I was struck by the patterns the drizzle was making on the windshield. It put a smile on my face so early in the morning.

Chris.

0 to 3000

 

I'm getting back into the industrial photos. I'm around this stuff all day, I might as well take creative advantage of that.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - September 15 2013.

 

What is it that will cause a 6 year old to burst our laughing so early in the morning before she even gets dressed? Usually her goofbal dad that's what.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - September 14 2013.

 

You can use what ever method of getting rid of the flies that sneak into your house when you are not looking but I still find good old fashion fly paper the best.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - September 13 2013.

 

Happy Friday The 13th!

Just to show that bad luck does not always ensue on a Friday the 13th, here is a beautiful weed against a fantastic deep blue sky.

Enjoy.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - September 8 2013.

 

Nothing beats the energy of a kid. They can run and jump all day long.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - September 1 2013.

 

On the lake one last time.

It was really nice to have such a warm calm day to spend an hour or so in the canoe with my son on our last weekend at the lake this season.

It is so relaxing just to paddle around the calm waters.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 28 2013.

 

Rain drops on a purple fall leaf.

It's coming. The dreaded winter. The leave are already starting to turn up here.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 27 2013.

 

Foggy Morning.

It was such a foggy drive to work this morning. We rarely get such great fog here in Edmonton but when we do, It's spectacular.

Visibility for most of my morning commute was 50 feet at best. Everything was so dreamy and surreal.

This is at the corner of the main street leading into our neighborhood. These are supposed to look like  a ships sails. if you took away the greenery I guess they would look like a ship lost in fog on the ocean.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 25 2013

 

Another in the rock pictures series. We take a photo every year on this rock. I dug it out of the lake under 5 feet of water and dragged it up to its resting spot for the last 10 years.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 24 2013.

 

On the lake on the first calm day we could go canoeing on. It was beautiful. No wind and hot. We spent about an hour or so tooling around the lake in the canoe.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 23 2013

 

The boy came to see me at work this afternoon. I figured while he was here he might as well do some work.

I paid him in gummy worms. (expenced that too).

 

 Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 22 2013

 

Sunrise during my commute to work.

Clouds and jet trails above, rock chips in the window and a bumpy highway below.

Chris.

The Photographer's Tool

 

I'm a photographer and as a photographer my camera is my hammer and everything I see is a nail.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 21 2013.

 

New school shoes! Maybe these ones will last the year.....maybe.

Chris.

Daily Life Snap Shot - August 18 2013.

 

Ready to go to my parents house for a BBQ.

Devilled Eggs

Had to capture these before another was stolen by a hungry kid. LOL. They sure love these.

Chris.

Lily, B&W

 

Someone got a new hair cut. She is much cuter when she has shorter fur.

Went with B&W for a change.

Chris.

She's Good...

I'm not sure how I feel about my daughter becoming a good little photographer. I mean she's only 6. Sure most of her photos are full of motion blur or only mean something to her, but this one, this one is fantastic. 

  

I don't really like many photos of myself but this one I like. Of course I edited it a bit to make me look a bit more grungy but she took a good shot. She got me all in there, didn't cut of my arms at an awkward spot and gave just enough background for context.

Good job Sweet Pea.

In The Rain

 

I'm trying harder this year to make the most of the unusual amount of rain we have had this summer. All one needs is an umbrella to keep the rain off your camera and away you go.

Chris.

Updated Family Photo

My Brother and I and our wives threw a 50th anniversary party for our parents this pas weekend. It took a fair amount of planning and a whole lot of secrecy and pulling the wool over our parents eyes for months. Everything went really well and they were very surprised that we could manage to cooperate for the time it took to put this all together. It was a lot of fun in the end.

Here is an updated family photo of all of us. We have never had one will all our kids in at the same time. It just never seemed to work out. Finally I have that photo. I'll have to be sure to print one for my parents and my Brother and Sister-in-law as well for the wall.

 

 It is official, I am the tallest in my family now. Dad was the tallest at 6'4" but he's shrunk with age leaving me the tallest at 6'3". I'm taller than any one on either side of my family now. It's good to be the king. LOL!

Chris.

July In Alberta Means Thunderstorms!

I think the best part of July in Alberta is thunderstorms. I really want to get out of my back yard though and get some distance between me and the storm so I can really get some dramatic photos.

That said, the sky last night was very dramatic over the city. Always best when the cells are small enough that they don't cover the whole city at once.

 

Chris.

More Time With The 17-85mm.

So, I've been spending a lot more time with the 17-85mm that I had all but written off. I'm sure the last time I used this lens was 4 years ago. I'm not sure why I got it into my head that it was not a good lens. I do that kind of thing from time to time. Like when I learned that I could shoot at very high ISOs in the day light to get really fast shutter speeds. Then I got stuck thinking that all my shot's should be at a high ISO just to get that fast shutter speed. What ended up happening was poor photos with bad contrast and color.

So, what I'm learning about this lens is also something that I'm learning about myself. It is pretty good. And I'm pretty good. I don't want to toot my own horn but my photography is pretty descent. Even if few people actually look at it. I don't really go out of my way to promote myself these days. Maybe soon but I don't do it right now.

Anyway, I've drifted from my topic a bit. I tend to do that.

Here is a photo from my playings around today that really shows off what this lens can do under the right circumstances. We were out in the yard again, boy I love summer, and I had my speedlite on the camera to test what this lens could do with some nicer fill flash. I was quite happy with the result.

 

Let's ignore her mop of a hair doo this evening. It's been hot and the play was hard! Look at her eyes, so sharp and the color is just popping out at you. Then there is her freckles across her cheeks and over her nose. They just pop as well. With the right amount of light, this lens is very sharp. Sharp enough that I'm proud to show off this example from the lens.

I have a shoot tomorrow with a young married couple with a new born. They are looking for some good quality photos of their new son and I'm confident that I will be able to produce some very good images for them with this lens and my 50mm. I'm taking all my gear. The tripod and my umbrella too. Might as well run through everything I have.

Chris.

Mikayla - Back Yard Portraits

 

Playing around with my Canon 17-85mm lens some more. Pop a bit of fill flash in there and It made for a really nice portrait.

Chris.