Sunday, April 25, 2010

power to the people...and other stuff

unlike last week, when it was almost mind-dumbingly slow in terms of assignments, this week seemed pretty packed - this job is like a constant roller coaster, i swear! i guess that's not always a bad thing - it keeps you on your toes...but it seems i find myself getting stressed out by it faster and more often - being too slow feels just as stressful in some aspects as being super busy...maybe i just need to take a real vacation....
anyway, i have to say i did have some pretty cool assignments this week in the big mix of things...
starting with wednesday (just to pick up where i left off at last post)....
got a call from a business (a resale shop benefitting the homeless) - they are having a "hawaiian themed party" to honor volunteers, and they're all having a great time - can we come out? - editor asks what i've got going - i'm just doing officey stuff until my first assn, but that's in an hour and a half, so i can run over and check that out....well, there's a cake, and they're wearing leis, and they did put a colorful umbrella on the snack table, but really, that's about it - so i hung for a while and managed to get this moment between 2 of the volunteers as they looked at the board of commemorative fotos set up in one of the aisleways..

then it was back and getting ready for my assignment
our coal-fueled power plant - which i learned is one of the 5 biggest in the nation - is doing a major overhaul on one of its 4 "units" - a unit being a boiler, turbine and radiator, and of course all the inter-related parts - including miles of steel coils, airducts, cool down, etc etc, etc - it's all being replaced throughout the course of an 80-some day shutdown...
project leaders were giving a tour of the unit and work - well, the tour being for the newspaper - the reporter said before we left - gimme a sign when you're set with fotos, 'cos i don't want to be there more than an hour.....
so, of we go, after clearing the security gate...
i have to admit i was a little looking forward to going in there, because this is one of those places where you just never go in there - it's super-high security and you just think about taking a picture of something if you happen to be in the perimeter, and they're all over you - mind you, not as crazy as our local nuclear plant - where the gate guards greet you with AK-47's in hand (and if that's not accurate, then suffice it to say, very high-powered scary looking automatic weaponry), but still, pretty high-security, and in my 8-plus years here, i've never been inside this place - what good journalist doesn't want to know what's behind that door with the big DO NOT ENTER sign plastered all over it!
so, we go in, met by 2 reps of the project and their media relations guy - they have hard hats and goggles for each of us - damn! hard hats and goggles - this is a serious impediment - just try shooting vertical with a hard hat on, not to mention the big bulky goggles that are pressing down on my already spring-allergy beleaguered sinuses in such a way that i am having serious trouble breathing through my nose! oh well, whatcha gonna do, eh?
we head up to the "unit" where they give us the background on the project, then tell us all the scary things we're about to encounter - we'll be going up to the 12th floor (yes, the boiler extends up 12 floors!), and walking on grates, so if heights bother you, you might be feeling pretty uncomfortable - yikes, that'd be me, but i guess i'll just cross that grate when i come to it - and you better tuck your hair into your collar, and remove your tie (for the reporter, since our dress code dictates that all the guys have to wear ties on the job), and it's gonna be pretty hot, but you better keep your jacket on for safety, and watch where you're walking (which is an interesting conundrum since i don't WANT to look down and see how high up we are), here are some complimentary flashlights since it might be too dark to see in some spots, and avoid standing water, etc etc - well, i think they were erring on the side of caution, cos i really didn't feel like we were ever in imminent mortal danger, but they kind of made me feel a little uneasy about what faced us on this tour...

the boiler is broken up into multi-floor sub-units, each of which is a spider web of scaffolding so that master welders can weld together the myriad of coils that line the walls

to get the new equipment into the plant,
the work team essentially just cut big holes in the outer walls, bringing part and pieces in on a huge crane, then sliding them into place to be welded - it's all very complicated - way over my head, but it looked very very cool, and crazy to be standing in the huge space which would, upon operation, be a 3,000-degree burning oven of coal-fueled fire!


on our way up to the 12th floor, i saw this worker also awaiting the elevator (thank goodness they didn't make us walk all the way up there! we did hoof it all the way back down though - so we could stop at floors along the way) - i just loved that green window behind him, the goggles, his gloves - so i asked if i could make a picture - that and being in the big elevator with these guys going to their respective job sites, all goggled up, in their work clothes, dirty, hot, nobody saying anything as we travelled up and up and up into the plant, i felt like i was in one of those old fotos of coal miners all packed into the shaft elevator taking them down to the job....
saw these other workers taking their break near the huge space that had been cut out of the wall, which i liked cos it just had that timeless plant-worker feel to it
the window gave a much-needed breeze


and offered a great view of Lake Erie, and perspective of just how high up we were

air duct
so, we finally wrapped up the tour after 2 hours! i swear, once you get those guys talking, they just never want to stop - like i said at the beginning, you ordinarily can't look sideways at this place without getting hassled, but once they let you in to show you what they're doing, they're just NOT letting you go!
after getting that in for the next days' paper, i walked over to a new art gallery - all themed on work featuring water and/or boating - i didn't have the light kit, but i figured i could make do - nothing too memorable or post-worthy (and i forgot to save a frame to post anyway), but that was the end of the day!

back on the night shift thursday - had 2 assignments - first to meet a group of women who had been "rosie the riveters" back in WWII - all worked as riveters constructing B-24 bombers at the Willow Run Bomber Plant....this is for our senior/retiree magazine - there's huge back-story to this, which only makes it funnier or more annoying to those involved, but will be a snooze to any of you....suffice it to say, we needed to get a portrait of these 3 women, all upper 80's to 90 in age, at the Yankee Air Museum, which according to google map, is conveniently located on the west side of the Willow Run Airfield just a couple roads off I-94....
well, let's just say, don't believe everything you read...the copy editor who was writing this story and went to EMU later told me they used to jokingly refer to that area as the Willow Run Triangle (ie, Bermuda Triangle), because it was so damn confusing, people went in and never came out....
well, i can fully get behind that reference!
so, i left monroe early, cos i wanted to get there first, check out the place and get a jump on lighting the portrait - as it turned out, i wound up getting there a good 45 minutes late! (and the writer, with the elderly women in tow, hadn't beaten me by much either)
in that time, i got sidelined by construction and closed on-ramps, then found the place i thought, except it wasn't where it was supposed to be, and then i somehow got dumped out onto the interstate, and then i got horribly lost, nearly got into a bad accident which likely would have killed my car or me or both (VW Golf vs Yukon, do the math!), and finally, FINALLY, after going round in huge circles and making many many illegal u-turns, i found them...

mind you, at this point, my blood pressure is so high, it feels as though my eyeballs are about to be jettisoned from my skull, and it turns out the museum isn't really open, cos the building has been condemned, and they're not there - they're in a field outside, which, in terms of how i'm going to light just knocks me for a total loop - yeah, cos that's just what i need at this point!
so, anyway, we make this portrait there - a bit limited in terms of where to position them because the plane (like one they built) is amid a bunch of other old planes, many of which are being worked on, so there's scaffolding around, and i don't want that cluttering things up...
after the portrait, we went back to the (former) museum space, where they have one of the B-24's they actually did build there and which likely these women put together - it's all in parts, but they hope to put it back together, and though no one is supposed to be in this building, the museum guys got us in anyway so the women could see and touch it

then we went outside the hangar, and one of the guys pointed out the plant entrance across the way to the building in which they worked

it all brought back a flood of memories for these women (who i can't believe were 90, or near-so!) one of them women recalled how some of the girls would implant notes inside the planes for soldiers to find, with messages like "we're proud of you" or sometimes their name and addresses for possible correspondence...it was an interesting end to a harrowing start, and afterward, it was back to monroe, where i downloaded their fotos just before heading out to the community college where a dedication ceremony was to be held for the new deck built around their outdoor telescope...i never even knew this thing was there - one of those dome-housed telescopes - all be it a small one - but the old deck on which it sat was so rickety, they really couldn't even safely use it...and now they can....had enough dusk left that i could get some pix of them starting to focus it and look at the moon, which thankfully they did, cos the light would have been rough (for me at least) once it got dark and they really started their star gazing...

friday morning a south county elementary school was going to have a bus safety emergency drill - 8 am SHARP!! the assn. sheet said, so, i got there a bit early, just so i wasn't scrambling to get my gear ready once it got going, cos it sounded like it might be a quick event, and i needed to get something for the daily and the weekly south county publications....turns out it was very quick - probably about 8 minutes - the kids jumped out of the side emergency exit, lined up by the flag pole, and that was it...but they did it in a very quiet and orderly manner, which i guess is really the whole point of these things...

after that, headed up to a northern part of the county for a golf invitational - i hate shooting golf - i think i just don't really know how to do it, or do it differently, so it's a tough one to me (and i'll get to do it again next friday! yay for me!)
i turned around and notioced this coach inside the clubhouse watching the near green and framed between the reflection of the protective netting hanging over the windows - so, this was my favorite from the golf...

saturday, Gordie Howe, hockey-legend, was making a promo stop at a local dealership, giving autographs and taking pix with the public...

then, up to the mall for the annual Celebrate Children Festival - god, i think i've shot this every single year i've been here! it's info booths for all things child well-being related, each of which has give-aways or crafts or games - like, pick-the-lollipop or bean bag tosses - always has potential, but it's kind of the face-painting, inflatable, balloon-animal kind of event - kind of liked this moment/image, though it is just a visual trick in the bag - kids and reflections, but still, i liked it...

took a little break, then was going to head out to the soccer invitational cham,pionship match, which was supposed to start after 3 - luckily, i ran into the sports guy covering it at the office after the mall shoot, and i gave him my cell, just in case none of our local teams ended up making it into the finals - he said he'd know before 2 if that were the case, so by 2, i was feeling like i could plan on sticking with the plan, until i got a call from a JV coach at quarter after 2 telling me that they were already half-way thru the finals game, which had started early - well, crap, hurry up and run!
so, i got there for the start of the last half of the game - which they were winning, and the score-keeping moms asked if i were going to stay and shoot the award ceremony, which we normally don't, cos that's not what the sports guys are gonna run anyway, but they hadn't won the tourney (which is their own tournament, incidentally) in years, and please won't i - so, yeah, i said i would and put it in the web gallery at least\actually kind of liked this moment, before they got into "pose with the trophy for pix mode"

and this action we didn't use - it was a near miss - just a little too tight, but i like it best for its potential

then, back in later to tone on the desk, then home!


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