De-comissioned Cranes

This was about 3 weeks ago in Boston.

I wanted to use silhouette to make a statement against the contrast of the lively city in the background. #1 shows it a little better then #2 I think.

There is a lot of history behind these cranes that have been de-commissioned for 40 years.

-Enjoy

I like these, David. You've managed to create images that reflect your perspective on these inanimate hulks. There's a lonely, forlorn feeling there. Giants who have done their jobs and are now forgotten. Very well done.

Your images pushed my buttons since I'm in the midst of a project centered on large construction projects. Cranes, and the gestural scenes they sometimes create, represent a significant portion of this project.

Hi David,

A remarkable pair of pictures with the cranes appearing like guardians of the city. I believe that similar cranes near San Francisco inspired the robotic machines in one of the Star Wars movies. I wonder why they don't take them down?

The first picture is the most complete as the city is beautifully shown and one can follow the steel of the crane to the end of the structure. Of course, cranes are meant to be balanced, but these cranes show their cables and they work perfectly to add lines of interest for us to follow. These cranes truly seem to arch over the city as guardians. Kudos, well executed concept.

Could you share the technical details if you have them.

Asher

#1 shows it a little better then #2 I think.

Click to expand...

David,

For me, picture #2 is the strongest one, as cranes are the main subject and we really feel their lonely presence, with only suggestion of the city at the background. Bravo.

technical details are 13 seconds F10 23mm on a 1.6x crop. Iso 200

I wanted the clouds to move, but not too much. Also I wanted some grain and didnt want a 30 second exposure that would have risked the cables moving in the wind The sharpness on that lens is perfect @F10 so iso 200 was the choice.

Both basically same setup, but #2 is 46mm instead of 23mm. This is a 17-50mm lens.
Afterwards I did some expiramenting to find the perfect B&W mix even adding a tiny tiny tiny amount of color into the shot.

Very nice David. I appreciate the light of the city in #1 ... but the crane just doesn't pop out ... a subtle statement of the darkened crane against the vibrant city.

The second image is quite the opposite as the cranes are a very strong factor, dominating the image and seemingly the city ... huge machines against a toy city ... very Godzilla-like and very well done.

Gary

PS- I do find the middle crane ... mmmhhh ... somewhat distracting because it overlaps the left crane ... a cleaner shot from the same perspective may make an equally clean statement.
G

David,

I actually prefer the second shot - the starkness and lonliness of the cranes with the city reduced in importance works well to my eyes. I also like the toning and contrast of the image. I agree with Gary on the overlapping crane, but not sure that there is much you can do about that as moving viewpoint would change the main relationships.

An excellent idea

Mike