Monday, October 31, 2011
How I became a Photographer ....... Dynamite to MegaPixels
There are quite a few photos to go along with the stories. Most of the images are taken with old point and shoot film cameras, from Brownies to disposables. A few more are the work of low end digital, but still point it, and push the button. No photographic knowledge what so ever. I'll give you the brief view of how one thing led to the next in pictures.
The start was when an old man asked me to look at a blasting job in the Wood Bay area. The work that he wanted done wasn't feasible for all kinds of reasons. He invited me to come to another part of his acreage to have a look at something he thought might be interesting to me.
And there on the lower side of the property was this great collection of abandoned machinery and trucks. The old fella had been landscaping around his favorites to keep them accessible. If he didn't do that, the forest would have grown in and swallowed the rusty old gear.
I approached several photographer friends to come out and photograph the site for me, to capture the beauty of the setting, with the green forest around the derelict iron.Despite being offered money, no one wanted to come and do the job. One guy was adamant that I do it myself. Having no camera skills and no high end camera, that seemed like a bit of a reach. Frustration led me to start researching cameras and reading up on the language of photography. In six months I was ready to make the leap. Lucky for me, my wife at the time persuaded me to by the very best camera that I could possibly afford at the time. I think that she had a sense that this was going to be special.
The developing skills with a camera transferred well to my work situation on the Sea to Sky job. I started off with a "work" camera, being afraid of taking my good camera out into the worst elements possible, dirt and rock dust. I took work photos to document the process or to record events or incidents. It took a while for the guys to get used to a camera on site, but after a while it was just another tool.
These next few photos are from a two mega-pixel still/video camera ( low resolution )
As the highway job progressed and got more challenging and complex, I decided to try using aerial photography from a helicopter for planning purposes and to literally get the bird's eye view. My friend Robin MacGregor was both an excellent pilot and a photographer. He knew how to fly and position the helicopter to get the best images. The first flight, I had to pay for myself, to prove to the company that this was going to be worth the expense. When I got back on the ground, I went to Mountain Colors in North Van to get huge enlargements of the important pics. The highly detailed 30" prints, pretty much blew management out of the water. From then on, every two weeks or so, Robin and I would fly out and document the job from Squamish back to West Van. I'll tell you some more helicopter and Robin stories anther time. Here are some teasers, with more to come in the future. After the first few flights, I started using the Nikon DSLR, and learning to shoot with it from a moving helicopter in all kinds of conditions.
Living on 1st and Chesterfield in North Vancouver led to walkabouts that generated some great shots. Some of the best ones I took in the wee hours of summer morning before work, using very slow shutter speeds.
Here are a few samples
Here's a little present until I get back with more of the story......
The start was when an old man asked me to look at a blasting job in the Wood Bay area. The work that he wanted done wasn't feasible for all kinds of reasons. He invited me to come to another part of his acreage to have a look at something he thought might be interesting to me.
And there on the lower side of the property was this great collection of abandoned machinery and trucks. The old fella had been landscaping around his favorites to keep them accessible. If he didn't do that, the forest would have grown in and swallowed the rusty old gear.
I approached several photographer friends to come out and photograph the site for me, to capture the beauty of the setting, with the green forest around the derelict iron.Despite being offered money, no one wanted to come and do the job. One guy was adamant that I do it myself. Having no camera skills and no high end camera, that seemed like a bit of a reach. Frustration led me to start researching cameras and reading up on the language of photography. In six months I was ready to make the leap. Lucky for me, my wife at the time persuaded me to by the very best camera that I could possibly afford at the time. I think that she had a sense that this was going to be special.
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| So this low resolution digital photo with a cheap camera turned in to the work below with the help of a Nikon DSLR, and lots of experimentation |
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| One of the trucks on the Sterloff property Believed to be a 1946 or so Kenworth |
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| I'm told that the one on the left could be a 1944 Pete camera work is coming along nicely by now |
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| Looking for new angles and lighting |
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| The twins shot from down low on a perfect weather day |
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| Different angle , different day |
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| Same property, old station wagon rear tail light, learning how to capture the small details and textures |
These next few photos are from a two mega-pixel still/video camera ( low resolution )
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| Sea to Sky project above Horseshoe Bay, 385 Cat hoe digging out a blast on Cut 7, Wayne Tyson in the machine |
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| Two Ranger rock drills at the very beginning of the project in the Eagle Bluffs area, just above where the protesters were |
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| Cut 14, at the north end of our section. Just before Ansell Place. Working above the Squamish Highway , placing blast mats, Mike Trufanenko, driller /blaster guiding the hoe operator |
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| Stripping off the Cut 4 backside, this turned into a 110 ft rock cut. This is the Northwest side of the cut, Eagleridge parking lot is over the rise |
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| Ranger 800 rock drill and Cat hoe drill on the South East side of Cut 4 |
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| Hoe drill at the highest point of Cut 4. I used to pack my camera around in a small "Pelican" case to protect it from the bumps and drops of the construction world |
As the highway job progressed and got more challenging and complex, I decided to try using aerial photography from a helicopter for planning purposes and to literally get the bird's eye view. My friend Robin MacGregor was both an excellent pilot and a photographer. He knew how to fly and position the helicopter to get the best images. The first flight, I had to pay for myself, to prove to the company that this was going to be worth the expense. When I got back on the ground, I went to Mountain Colors in North Van to get huge enlargements of the important pics. The highly detailed 30" prints, pretty much blew management out of the water. From then on, every two weeks or so, Robin and I would fly out and document the job from Squamish back to West Van. I'll tell you some more helicopter and Robin stories anther time. Here are some teasers, with more to come in the future. After the first few flights, I started using the Nikon DSLR, and learning to shoot with it from a moving helicopter in all kinds of conditions.
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| Eagleridge area and Cut 4 and 5, Upper Levels Highway down to ferry terminal |
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| This was another contractor on the highway, working in the creek ( with a permit ) they didn't think it was very funny when we circled overhead several times taking pictures. I gave them copies later after stringing them along for a bit. |
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| The big ugly and super challenging Cut 9, working day and night 100 meters above the Squamish highway |
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| Different view of Cut 9. There is a great story of this day that I'll tell you later, this was one of my best days ever. |
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| Getting picked up on the work site and flying around taking pictures was very cool |
Here are a few samples
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| The view out the back of my N.Van Kiewit apartment, computer enhanced |
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| North Van waterfront at the old boatyard before the new development started |
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| Walkway at N.Van waterfront looking towards Seaspan drydocks |
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| Double long exposure shots laid over top of each other just for fun , corner of Esplanade and Lonsdale, shot at 5 a.m. |
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| More North Vancouver waterfront at the foot of Lonsdale, pre-development |
Drill bits and Dynamite Part Four
Believe it or don't, but when I finally finished that job for the wealthy customer, and the balance owing was a tad over 10,000 bucks, he paid without fuss or phone calls within a week. So a happy ending for that one after all.
I started to prep for the move to work on the Sea to Sky Job immediately. I had to tell customers and digging contractors that it was all over and to start calling the other guy from now on. I would say that my wife was less than impressed with me working away from home at this point. It's not far as the crow flies, but we would be separated by the Langdale/Horseshoe Bay ferry ride. Kiewit set me up with an apartment in North Vancouver, only a few minutes drive to the project. I went home on weekends and during the week sometimes if it was at all possible
A brief side tour.
How did it come to be that the monster company Peter Kiewit Sons ended up making that phone call? Well let's go back a bit. I was working on a subdivision job on Gambier Island with contractor Pete Husband. Pete mentioned that he met a guy who needed some large boulders blasted. I was going full tilt on the island and was only mildly interested. I asked who the the job was for, and he responded, Peter Kiewit. I had never ever heard of Peter Kiewit or his sons, so my next question was......
Does he have any money?
As it turns out, Peter Kiewit Sons is not a guy and a pick up truck, but is an employee owned mega construction contractor in North America. And yes, they probably have enough dough on hand to pay me for blasting a few boulders. The job was at the McNair Creek IPP project which I'm thinking was one of the originals in this area, and also one of the first ones ever attempted by PKS. Here I met people that that would be my connections to the Sea to Sky gig. Jean Beaudin, Rick Berg and Dave McLellan were all here and we got along great. I think it helped that I usually showed up after my days work on the island or on weekends, so things were generally a bit more casual and friendly. The boulder busting work was drop dead simple, it just involved a ton a hard work and scrambling around on cabin sized rocks. After the relatively small job was done, I never heard from them again, until Jean phoned on that magic day with the life altering call. Exactly why they made that call, I really have no idea, I'm just glad it worked out that way.
Now to be honest, I thought that I was going to be part of an established rock blasting team in the company and learn how the big boys do things. It didn't quite work out that way. Not even close, and in the next two years, I went to new heights in my blasting career ( and several lows ) , that I never would have dreamed, even in my most feverish moment.
So what I will do now is take you on a little pictorial tour of some of the individual jobs that made up the project and tell a few tales along the way.
These stories are focused on the blasting part of the project, and are told from my perspective. All the photos that you will see ( and later videos ) are mine.
Let's start with a picture tour at....well....at the beginning.We'll start off easy with a photos of the massive Komastsu 1250 excavator being assembled in the Eagleridge parking lot. The same area that anti-highway protesters would soon occupy ( whole other story )
The next set of photos shows the very first blasting to be done on the Segment One section ( West Vancouver ) The Tamrock Ranger 800 drills were not ready yet, and we had a crew hired and ready to go. We went out and bought handpluggers and started a small part of the project with hand drilling. It didn't take long before the anti-highway and anti-Olympics protesters would show up.
I started to prep for the move to work on the Sea to Sky Job immediately. I had to tell customers and digging contractors that it was all over and to start calling the other guy from now on. I would say that my wife was less than impressed with me working away from home at this point. It's not far as the crow flies, but we would be separated by the Langdale/Horseshoe Bay ferry ride. Kiewit set me up with an apartment in North Vancouver, only a few minutes drive to the project. I went home on weekends and during the week sometimes if it was at all possible
A brief side tour.
How did it come to be that the monster company Peter Kiewit Sons ended up making that phone call? Well let's go back a bit. I was working on a subdivision job on Gambier Island with contractor Pete Husband. Pete mentioned that he met a guy who needed some large boulders blasted. I was going full tilt on the island and was only mildly interested. I asked who the the job was for, and he responded, Peter Kiewit. I had never ever heard of Peter Kiewit or his sons, so my next question was......
Does he have any money?
As it turns out, Peter Kiewit Sons is not a guy and a pick up truck, but is an employee owned mega construction contractor in North America. And yes, they probably have enough dough on hand to pay me for blasting a few boulders. The job was at the McNair Creek IPP project which I'm thinking was one of the originals in this area, and also one of the first ones ever attempted by PKS. Here I met people that that would be my connections to the Sea to Sky gig. Jean Beaudin, Rick Berg and Dave McLellan were all here and we got along great. I think it helped that I usually showed up after my days work on the island or on weekends, so things were generally a bit more casual and friendly. The boulder busting work was drop dead simple, it just involved a ton a hard work and scrambling around on cabin sized rocks. After the relatively small job was done, I never heard from them again, until Jean phoned on that magic day with the life altering call. Exactly why they made that call, I really have no idea, I'm just glad it worked out that way.
Now to be honest, I thought that I was going to be part of an established rock blasting team in the company and learn how the big boys do things. It didn't quite work out that way. Not even close, and in the next two years, I went to new heights in my blasting career ( and several lows ) , that I never would have dreamed, even in my most feverish moment.
So what I will do now is take you on a little pictorial tour of some of the individual jobs that made up the project and tell a few tales along the way.
These stories are focused on the blasting part of the project, and are told from my perspective. All the photos that you will see ( and later videos ) are mine.
Let's start with a picture tour at....well....at the beginning.We'll start off easy with a photos of the massive Komastsu 1250 excavator being assembled in the Eagleridge parking lot. The same area that anti-highway protesters would soon occupy ( whole other story )
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| Spring 2006 two big cranes setting up in Eagleridge parking lot to lift the pieces of the PC-1250 into place ...the parts were trucked from an Eastern Canada minesite |
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| PKS mechanics planning out the next moves |
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| The "house" of the excavator the low-bed truck, Bowen Island in the background |
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| Crawler components going together brand new blast mats in the background |
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| Lifting the house from the truck to the undercarriage |
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| Not something that you would want to drop |
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| Getting ready to add the other track set up |
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| The boom lifted into place and pinned |
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| 769 Haul trucks that we would use much later in the job when the haul roads got better and not so steep |
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| The 12,000 pound digging bucket waiting to be attached (that's more weight than the average hoe can lift in total ) |
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| The stick being lifted on, and hoses attached |
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| Adding hydraulic plumbing and pins |
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| Done deal, a monster machine is assembled |
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| Testing it out, the machine worked very little on the project before it was taken apart again and sent to a job in Oregon |
The next set of photos shows the very first blasting to be done on the Segment One section ( West Vancouver ) The Tamrock Ranger 800 drills were not ready yet, and we had a crew hired and ready to go. We went out and bought handpluggers and started a small part of the project with hand drilling. It didn't take long before the anti-highway and anti-Olympics protesters would show up.
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| Scoping out the job with driller/blaster Paul Cooper |
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| Eagleridge overpass and the highway to and from from the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal |
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| Handrilling with pluggers and hanging in harnesses |
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| Brand new blast mats waiting for the first shot |
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| The lady who lived across the street asked us to stop and rescue some of the residents of the rock before blasting started, so we all pitched to catch lizards and put them in buckets for her |
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| Handrilling in a fine setting with a fantastic view |
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| Most of these guys had not ever touched a hand plugger before, after this they were very happy to see the Ranger 800's show up |
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| And the protesters set up camp |
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| A couple of shots done, and then the mats are piled on the broken rock to cover the higher up blasts |
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| The protesters camp, complete with porta-cans and Starbucks deliveries, taunting us with " the rocks have feelings and your hurting them" as the news helicopters circled overhead |
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| Nice results from a small shot |
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