Some industrial night shots

[SouthernDonkey]

I passed this place on my way home last night. It looked interesting so I grabbed my camera and went back to snap a few shots.

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[SouthernDonkey]

1. Another

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[barbtries]

2. where is it?

judging by your signature it is not in CA, but it looks like a place i drove past probably a 1000 times or more back home.

[SouthernDonkey]

3. Last one

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[Speck Tater]

4. Those are very nice!

I like industrial and machinery photos.

[Solly Mack]

5. That's a nice shot!

[SouthernDonkey]

6. Thanks all!

No, it's not in Cali. It is in North Mississippi. The temp and dewpoint were very close last night, and we had been to Tunica, MS for a Riverboat dinner cruise Christmas party on the Mississippi river, which was very cool as well. On the way home, I passed this place and saw the fog and my wife said "that'd make some great pictures!" It's actually only about a mile from my house. So I came home got my camera and a tripod and went back for the shots.

[Adsos Letter]

7. Sweet!

There's a very large refinery about 20 miles from us, lots and lots of lights and towers, tanks, etc. I've always wanted to shoot it at night, but I'm afraid their security might get on me about it.

Still, your shots may encourage me to get over my reticence.

Did you use a tripod?

[SouthernDonkey]

8. Yes on the tripod!

These were long exposures. I was a little aprehensive about security there. I didn't really know what the place was or who ran it. When I saw it was TVA I was a little less concerned. I got there at about 10 pm, so I was hoping to avoid an 11-7 shift change. If they even work those hours. I parked across the road at another business. It's all industrial so most places were closed. Luckily, there didn't appear to be ANY people around or coming or going the whole time I was there; about 15 minutes maybe. And the bluff I was standing on was very fortuitous! ...as well as outside the fence. I did wear some dark clothes and was kind of in the ninja mode! lol. If It hadnt of been so easy, I probably would have just went to the guard shack and asked.....first... (I'm gonna get arrested one of these days for trespassing. I hope I don't get shot for trespassing!)

[alfredo]

9. Those are very nice. They'd probably work in B&W too.

[Johnny Noshoes]

12. I downloaded them to play with...

and yeah they look great in black and white. I like industrial stuff and these are really great shots - nice work.

[alfredo]

13. The color adds a bit of softening to the hard edges of industrial necessity.

[Johnny Noshoes]

15. Well yeah

I like the originals - funny thing is in black and white they look good but a little edgy.

[alfredo]

16. The color brings out the fog better.

[Adsos Letter]

10. I drove down to the refinery today.

It's the big Shell refinery in Martinez, CA. (38° 1′ 11″ N, 122° 6′ 6″ W in Google Earth). I live about 30 minutes from there, and every time I go past it at night I tell myself I'm going to get some shots of it.

Anyway, I found a spot I think might do. I'll drive back some evening this week to see how it looks at night.

[SouthernDonkey]

11. There ya go!

Look forward to seeing your photos!

..and thanks Alfredo!

[alfredo]

14. I like the color better. I explained above.

[SouthernDonkey]

17. Yeah...I like the color too.

Every once in a while something in black and white strikes my fancy, but I dont really get all that jazzed with it normally. I really strived for the color to actually turn out like this in these photos, to accentuate the fog and the shadows. I did very little to no adjustments on shadows in Lightroom, and absolutely no adjustment on color, saturation, etc. These are very close to as shot, if not totally. I did a little cropping on the isolated stack shot, mainly to adjust the vertical line a little.

[canonfodder]

18. Color yes

The variations of the color adds a certain depth to the image that B&W would not have captured.
I'd be hard pressed to pick a favorite from any of those.