Nice Gary. I didn't see some of those machines outside. I really liked the indoor area (your third pic, is the same machine as my second image above).
Definitely need to go again, perhaps with a bigger camera...
Still need to develop some color I shot.
Here's the #1 furnace. The light and shadow was nice briefly, about 15 minutes later it was gone. This time with a 150mm APO Symmar:
Lets plan it for a few degrees cooler temperature! Overcast day would be ideal to help with the deep shadows.
Corran, are you using X-Ray film? Just wondering because the images look pretty contrasty. I'll post some shots I took there a couple of years back as soon as I scan the carbon prints. L
Very contrasty lighting there.
T-Max 100, PyrocatOriginally Posted by Luis-F-S
Indoor images with light coming in from high sun were that contrasty. I embraced it and didn't try to wrench around the scale this time. I've shot indoors in similar condition and grossly overexposed + pull development to get softer contrasts but chose not to this time - I would've needed long exposures that would be susceptible to shake, as some of the area had metal sheeting on the ground that moved when walking on it and I was dodging other visitors. 15-minute exposures would've run afoul of other folks bouncing my tripod (happened once anyway with a 4-minute exposure).
Outdoor shots I tried to emphasize a contre-jour look.
I also busted out some old Provia Quickloads and shot a few in color, developed last night. Here's one, with a 90mm XL:
Is that an ancient, gigantic boiler? It makes me sweat just looking at it. Very cool by the way.
--- Steve from Missouri ---
I would be tempted to try some big flash bulbs, no reflector off-side for fill.
Steve, that is the side of "Furnace #1." I don't really know how the whole system worked, so possibly also a boiler. They had those too. The whole area is just a mess of huge pipes and machinery in a haphazard-looking arrangement, at least from a lay perspective.
Jac - years ago, when I did a lot of documentary images inside an old cotton mill that was being torn down, I used to do 15-30 minute exposures and then pulled development 30-50%. Worked really well for "correcting" the increased contrast from reciprocity as well as toning down the highlights. Was using Rodinal back then. While I love shooting film and using the old cameras, I have no plans for ever playing with flash bulbs. I have used electronic flash for fill sometimes, and even flashlights.
It looks like a Bessemer Converter to me ?
It turns pig iron (from a blast furnace) into steel by the injection of oxygen to burn off the carbon impurities.
Martin
History says that mill made pig iron, I saw no mention of it making steel. That is the furnace for smelting the iron. What Ive learned about the process is the big structures outside the pump room are full of stacked brick, heated for several hours by hot air from the furnaces, then the air is pumped through and heated and injected into the smelter to burn the coke and melt the iron as the ore is reduced to iron. Comes out the bottom and ran into molds in the sand around the smelter.
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