Had a quick stopover in Portland last week to visit an old friend, Angus.  Plenty of bridges to document my ongoing Bridge Project, but it was this image of St Johns Watertower that won my photo of the week!
Ironically, this is the 2nd time that this watertower has won!  The last time it was captured via a pinhole camera.  This time I thought I would take “a shot in the dark!”

The wide tower is truly part of the neighborhood, it is approachable from all directions, and has no gate to keep people out.  All are welcome to take in this unique view of an urban park.  How often do you get to gather under a water tower?  Most are 10-20 stories high in the sky with security fences surrounding them.

The tower was built in 1953 by the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel companies and holds over 150,000 gallons of water.  And it has a twin, St Johns is actually home to two of these unique watertowers.
So next time you are in Portland, get a different perspective from under the watertower!

What to do in Reno for fun?

First off, I’m sorry.

You can go check out the strip which is like old old old town Vegas, with many of those shuttered $39.95 Neon Hotels no longer flickering. However with Northern Nevada having the largest Basque population in the United States, I highly recommend taking in some delicious Basque food. We had an amazing 5 course meal at Louis’ Basque Corner just off the strip and the double cut lamb chops at the Santa Fe Hotel look scrumdiddlyumptious as well.
After that, I recommend getting out of town. Take Pyramid Way for 30 minutes north and you’ll come to Pyramid Lake. I had been to Pyramid Lake once before, on my way to the Playa for a pre-Burning Man festival. I remember walking along the lake and I getting some great surrealscape shots. The lake is surrounded by mountains and has many tufa formations in and around the lake that enhance the primordial landscape.

Pyramid Lake will probably become a more sought after destination once Apple’s iPad starts shipping in late March. The screensaver on the iPad is a night shot taken on an 8×10 camera in 2004 by Richard Misrach.  I can see it now, Apple will inspire the masses to dust off their 8×10 cameras and flock west. The next time you go to Pyramid Lake, good luck, there will probably be a wall of tripods that you will have to contend with to get your shot!

Now, I like to stay a little ahead of the game. So when I asked for the map of Reno at the rental car office, I had to smile at my luck as to how close Pyramid Lake was to Reno!  The next night a group of us headed out. I can’t really tell you much about the drive through the desert to the lake, except that it was really dark. With only a crescent moon lighting the way high ISOs or real long exposures were going to be the only option.
As we struggled in the dark to find a shooting location we finally stumbled across a marina in Sutcliffe, which ironically looked like a similar location to where Richard Misrach took his photograph. My high ISO test shot didn’t reveal anything good on the back of screen until 30 seconds at 2.8. Normally I like to shoot in the 6-8 minute time zone, but with the star trails circling and reflecting in the lake I definitely wanting to take it a little more extreme. The final product was a 20 minute exposure at f4 and ISO 500 with noise reduction on, which meant I had to wait 40 minutes to see the image! I think it was worth the wait, and what really surprises me about the images is the different colors in the star trails. I have never seen orange and blue star trails before and if anyone can explain it please share. We were all awestruck with the amount of stars that could be viewed. I fired off one more image below that was four minutes long and captures more of that celestial feeling that we got standing at edge of time as the stars shone all around us.

UPDATED ~ From Lance Keimig, night photographer pioneer and educator.

Gabriel- The colors in the stars have to do with their chemical composition and age. The younger, hotter burning ones are bluer, and older, cooler ones are more orange. Sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but it’s true.

Snow definitely brought a change to the landscape of New York this week. It snowed all day and night and when I got back to Brooklyn I was inspired to get the tripod out and risk the elements. Wonderful images can be captured in the rain and snow but no matter how weather sealed your camera is it is important to keep your camera dry. I’m a big fan of the kata rain covers which give you full access to your camera and controls while keeping your camera dry.

Lens hoods will also do a great job keeping the elements off the glass of your lens. For the image above I did shoot into the snow so having a lens cloth to dry off the lens in between shots is also helpful. When I was shooting in Pittsburgh last month the temperatures were in the teens and I noticed that my rechargeable batteries were quickly dying. I extended the life of my battery by warming it up in my hands every so often. I’d also advise keeping an extra battery warm in your pockets that you can swap out.
So don’t be afraid to get out in the elements, rain and snow can bring unique reflections and alternative ways of seeing.

Due to the blizzard-like conditions we are experiencing in NYC we are postponing the opening of my solo show at John Allan’s. The new date will be in two weeks, February 24th, so mark your calendars!
In the meantime, go out and take some pictures or play in the snow!

With the temperatures in the teens, ski masks on, two pairs of gloves, and foot warmers inserted, Tom Persinger and I braved the Pittsburgh nights to see what the full moon would reveal. We started in Pittsburgh’s largest park, North Park. Tom suggested that we check out the old Water Tower, officially called the Allegheny County North Park Water Supply System Standpipe. The only information I can find on this beautiful old tower is what was written on the plaque at the base of the standpipe:
Height of Dome – 101.6 ft
Height of Tank – 81 ft
Diameter of Tank – 35 ft
Storage Capacity – 300,000 gallons
Observation Deck – Elevation 1360.8 ft
Steps from Ground – 154
It was planned in 1935 by Chas. C. McGovern, W.O. Mansfield, and E.M. Barrr.
It was erected two years later, in 1937 by JNO. J. Kane, Geo. Rankin Jr., and Hohn S. Herron. I’ll spare you the controller and county department of works people but it was Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, Project No, PA,1422 0.

The tower is no longer a functioning public works and is open every so often for people to tour and see the observation deck. On this bitter night the gate was locked and as we approached we were surprised to see 50+ cars parked in the lot. What made things even more surreal was that the people getting in or out of the cars were dressed in Medieval costumes. Tom and I figured to have the whole Park to ourselves, but if you are going to share, why not with medieval folk? As it turned out they were members of the Society for Creative Anachronism and were performing a play about St Nicholas at the nearby park and rec building.
“The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our “Known World” consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which feature tournaments, royal courts, feasts, dancing, various classes & workshops, and more.”

Anyway aside from dodging the knaves and wenches who were turning on and off their car lights (uhhmmm those aren’t from the pre-17th century), the water tower was amazing to shoot. The image I chose as the photo of the week was shot on the second night. I went back because it was a much clearer night and I wanted to play with star trails against the water tower. Long exposures taken towards the east or west yield longer and straighter star trails then if you were to expose towards the north and south. Knowing this, I found a western angle of the tower and cropped in a slightly abstract way as to get the feeling that the star trails were shooting out of the water tower’s observation deck, which looks a bit like a lighthouse.
On the first night of shooting during the full moon it was overcast during the first half of the evening. Notice the images below that glow purple, they are from the first night. The mixture of the overcast moonlight and sodium vapor lights created a purple color temperature that I embraced.
We decided to photograph the boathouse next, and on our way we saw people playing platform tennis outdoors under floodlights, 10pm and we were lucky if it was 20 degrees out! And when we got to the boathouse another 20 cars were parked outside. As we set up our shots, 20 bundled up people started walking over to us using their ski poles to balance their rapid walk. As it turned out this group was part of Pittsburgh’s Venture Outdoors organization, who were out on a Wolf Moon hike.  The Native Americans call the first Full moon of the year the Wolf Moon “Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages.” It is usually the biggest full moon of the year according to astronomers it is 30% brighter and 14% wider.  This happens because the moon revolves round the Earth in an elliptical orbit and at the time of the wolf moon it comes closer to Earth than usual. Again, ironically they probably thought we were the strange ones taking pictures in the cold!
I’ll be posting some other night images from our Pittsburgh soon, some of Tom’s are already posted here.
And if anyone knows any more information regarding the history of the Allegheny County North Park Water Supply System Standpipe please share.

Last night I was amazed as I printed out last week’s Photo of the Week and the image quality was so much better than what I saw on the screen. It’s great that we can share images and ideas via blogs, FB, Flickr, etc but to me, nothing beats the image on the wall.
So in this every changing digital world, don’t forget to print. Make a permanent piece of your history to pass along.

So I’ve got a thing for bridges.

A significant part of my job involves traveling the United States, taking pictures along the way.  Besides the typical shots of the food we eat and monuments we see, I was looking to focus my “travel” work into a more cohesive theme.  I thought, “what can be found in almost every city?”  Looking back at my past work, I realized I have a fascination for man-made industrial objects, especially if they are set in a contrasting natural environment.   And thus the Bridge Project was born.

A bridge, as we commonly know, is a connection over an often dramatic obstacle.  The earliest bridges were made by nature, a simple log fallen across a creek.  The success of the Roman Empire relied heavily on their cement bridges and aqueducts that connected all roads to Rome.  The word bridge (besides the card game I’ve never figured out) is also a commonly used metaphor to describe a transitional route or phase between two times in one’s life.

I’m still in the collecting phases of the Bridge Project.  I started shooting it exclusively pinhole, mainly because I wanted to emphasize the solid foundation of the man made object and the continual flow of the natural obstacle, usually water.  Lately, I’ve been expanding the project to digital capture.   I often use a 10 stop neutral density filter over the lens to create exposures of up to 2-4 minutes during  bright sunny days when normal capture would be a fraction of a second.  I’m also utilizing the long exposures during the night to accentuate the flowing currents and clouds in the image.

Looking over last week’s images from Miami, it was this “end of the world” image of the Old Seven Mile Bridge, previously the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, that won the Photo of the Week.

Constructed under the direction of Henry Flagler between 1909-1912 it was the first attempt to link the Florida mainland with the Key islands to the south and was part of the even bigger Florida East Coast Railway.  The construction employed over 4,000 men and the latest engineering innovations since this area was prime hurricane territory.  In fact, 3 hurricanes threatened the completion of the project.  When completed, it was one of the longest bridges in existence.  The total length was 35,815 feet and consisted of 335 steel girder 80-foot spans, 9,000 feet of concrete arch viaduct, and a 253-foot swing truss drawbridge span.  The Florida Overseas Railroad Bridge vied with the Panama Canal for the title of the 8th Wonder of the World.

The Railroad successfully withstood the storms and traffic until the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, The Storm of the Century, devastated the Keys. Over 420 lives were lost, more than half were WW1 veterans who were working on the new US Highway 1 for the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Though most of the concrete sections of the Florida Overseas Railroad survived the storm, the many miles of rock-made causeways and rail beds were washed out. Thus the linkage of the keys was destroyed.
Cars were beginning to replace trains as the modern mode of transportation and the Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to reconstruct the bridge.  At that time, the state stepped in and construction of the Overseas Highway which utilized parts of Henry Flagler’s railroad bridges was completed in 1938.   The new two lane Overseas Highway served the Keys well and successfully survived many hurricanes and brought more traffic and tourism to the Keys then ever before.  But time takes its toll and 40 years later the groundwork for the new 7 mile bridge was laid.  The new bridge is a box-girder structure built from precast, prestressed concrete sections, comprising  440 spans.  See the below images for a detail shot of the concrete sections, with pelicans, as well as the comparison of the new and  old 7 mile bridge.  The bridge arcs to 65 feet near the center to accommodate boat passage but mainly rides closer to the water surface the rest of the way.  It was finished in 1983 and the old bridge was designated for preservation by the National Register.  It no longer carries cars and sections have been removed for safety and boat passage purposes.  Now these 23 old sections are used as fishing piers or by joggers and strollers who want to take a stroll along what looks like the end of the world.

Last weekend, Nancy and I took the Amtrak up to Rhinecliff, New York. The train hugs the Hudson river the whole way, and people dash onto the train to get the “river side” view. With ice floating on the river, the view was even more dramatic. I braved the cold to capture the Hudson on ice. The image was taken at the Rhinecliff dock facing Kingston with an exposure time of 8 minutes.

Inspired by dear friends Stacy and Andy’s 2010 resolution to take an inspirational Photo of the day, I’m reinstating my photo of the week blog. Hopefully this will inspire us all to carry our camera, shoot and share more! The inaugural photo of the week was taken in New Orleans at the Sazerac club. We were all imbibing in some wonderful beverages when I noticed servers coming in and out of a surreally lit kitchen. I grabbed my camera and stood near the entranceway hoping not to get hit by the opening door and captured this.

Looking for more inspiration and access to one of the coolest locations to capture images of Lost Americana?
Joe and Troy have a few spots open to their Pearsonville Junkyard Workshops in March and April. I took this workshop last year and had an amazing time, plus I significantly built up my night photography portfolio. You have 3 full moon nights of access to amazing old cars from the 1930’s-70’s, within the backdrop of the Mojave Desert mountains. My light painting techniques became much more refined as Joe and Troy shared their knowledge and took a lot of the guesswork out of using flashes and flashlights in night photography. Check out my previous blog and images from last year.
For more information and to see Troy and Joe’s amazing images check out the Pearsonville Junkyard Night Photography/Light Painting Workshops.