Optics and Exposure http://blog.odonoughue.org an Engineer with a Camera Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:38:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Happy 238th Birthday! http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/07/happy-238th-birthday.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/07/happy-238th-birthday.html#comments Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:38:45 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2174

Panoramic of the Charles just before dusk. It's difficult to see, but the Harvard bridge (right) is covered with people.

If you’ve never been, the 4th of July Fireworks display in downtown Boston is something to see.  I’m not sure I’d recommend it as an annual thing; the crowds are horrendous, but it is definitely something worth doing once or twice.  I’ve been once before, a few years ago, so this time I came prepared.

Lauren flew in for the weekend, so when Sunday rolled around, we packed up a cooler, some books, a deck of cards, a blanket, and, of course, my camera and tripod.  The concert was slated to start around 7:30 and the fireworks after dusk.  So, we walked out to stake out our spot at 2:30.  Like I said, it gets crowded.

Hit the jump to see some colorful explosions. The full set is also on flickr.

They started off the display with a 4 minute preamble (see the video below), then made us wait another 30 minutes or so while a concert played before kicking off the full show.

The crowds started earlier, and got unbelievably dense. The Prudential Center at dusk. The river is quiet with anticipation. Panoramic of the Charles just before dusk. It's difficult to see, but the Harvard bridge (right) is covered with people. After the National Anthem, a flight of four jets screeched down the Charles. Fireworks over the Charles River in Boston

-aigulf

]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/07/happy-238th-birthday.html/feed 0 Boston http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/06/boston.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/06/boston.html#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:13:52 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2168

My dorm. First time in 5 years that I've lived in one of these....and I haven't forgotten why.

Some of you may already know this, but I’m in Boston for the summer.  I may or may not be able to tell you where I’m working (I can, it’s MIT Lincoln Laboratory) or what I’m doing (I can, but it would be a long story).  What matters is this: I brought my camera.

The first update is rather lame, simply the obligatory “moving in” shot.  But, I’ve already scoped out some sunset photo spots, and will definitely be taking some photo walks.

If I get lucky, I may even find a guide to show me some abandoned structures in the area.  So, stayed tuned (or don’t, there *are* more interesting things on the Internet, after all).

-aigulf

]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/06/boston.html/feed 0 Bad Intel http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/05/bad-intel.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/05/bad-intel.html#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 16:37:00 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2155

Clairton Coke Works in the midst of a "quench," where they use water to cool down the coke as it leaves a 2,000C oven.

A few weeks back, a friend of mine told me that the Coke Battery in Monessen, PA had been shut down and was going to be gutted for parts within the month. A coke battery is a facility that takes in raw coal and processes it into an intermediate product that is used as a fuel in the steel production process. This was a rare opportunity to be able to get into a plant that hadn’t yet been stripped, and we were told the time table was short, so we took the unusual step of exploring during the week (thank God for flexible work schedules). Three of us made the trip down, found the plant pretty quickly, and immediately knew that something was wrong. We expected the place to be mostly abandoned, but the parking lot was more than half full. Obviously the workers were still there. Was it possible that our intel was a little premature?

We walked up to the guard shack and introduced ourselves as industrial preservationists and explained what we had been told. The guard seemed a little perplexed, but told us that we were flat out wrong. The plant is currently being “cold idled,” which means that they are not producing, and have basically shut off all of their equipment and cut back staff hours until the economy turns around and demand for coke increases. We asked if there were any way we could get a tour, and she told us that they are taking advantage of the downtime by upgrading all of their equipment, and they don’t want us to see any of their proprietary technology. So, we took some pictures from the perimeter, but couldn’t get near any of the good stuff.

On our way out, we took a quick tour of Monessen, one of the many Steel towns in the Rust Belt that is a shadow of its former self. After we left town, we stopped at an old coal mine a few miles outside of town, only to find that it had been completely demolished and stripped for parts (see the final photo). Hopefully my next adventure will be more fruitful than this one.

-aigulf

Clairton Coke Works in the midst of a "quench," where they use water to cool down the coke as it leaves a 2,000C oven. We expected an abandoned plant about to be gutted.....we got a parking lot full of cars and a fully staffed entrance. Coal Cars waiting for the plant to reopen. All the good stuff's inside. Too bad there are tons of guards and workers around. Nature bats last, and she always finds a way to retake the land. Another piece of the city on hold until the economy turns around. This dog just looks like the kind of dog that will get itself into any trouble it can find. Hopefully the owner got it to come back inside. Kind of reminds you of that trash compactor scene in Star Wars, no? This is the remnants of a coal mine that's been torn down and gutted for equipment. ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/05/bad-intel.html/feed 0 Return to Carrie http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/04/return-to-carrie.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/04/return-to-carrie.html#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:16:45 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2151

Control board for the hoist house.

I have a special affinity for Carrie Furnace.  She was my first abandoned factory, and she’s very close to home, so it’s always nice to plan a return trip.  Not to mention the fact that I always find something new!  Last weekend, I had a leisurely excursion and got a bunch of shots from new angles and places I hadn’t yet seen.

I’m never happy with my blast furnace shots, so I tried another one…the sunlight was pretty harsh, so I’ll be trying that again the next time I’m there.  The majority of the shots I’m posting come from either (a) the hoist house (which was used to power the cables that lifted ore into the furnaces) or (b) the high line, where incoming supply cars emptied their contents.  Take a peek into a National Historic Landmark.

-aigulf

 
Portrait shot of the blast furnace, and the channels used to direct molten pig iron coming out of the furnace. This assembly was used to protect the face of an operator who needed to peer inside the blast furnace at the molten steel and slag. The finished coat is flaking away. I thought that was a paper cup at first, but it is indeed metal. This can predates pop tops (obviously), as the entire lid had been removed to open it. Control board for the hoist house. Tension cables running from the hoist house towards the mineral lifts used to feed the furnace. From the crane used to unload supply cars, this shot shows a blast furnace (left), smoke stack, and three gas ovens used to heat the air that is injected into the blast furnace. At the right of the frame is a second furnace (partially visible). The tracks at the bottom were used to collect incoming ore (each furnace has an elevator to feed it). The operator's booth for the rail crane has seen better days. Rail cars entered the (partially obscured) tracks to the left. Stabilizing arms were lowered to hold the car in place, and the entire assembly pivoted to dump the contents of the car onto the grating structure to the right. The gears used to lift this whole assembly are absolutely massive. Control Room for the car dumper, which physically flipped rail cars not capable of emptying from the bottom. Four DC motors (two for each set of hoist cables) were needed to lift the car dumper assembly. Control Board for the DC Motors at the Car Dumper. Behind the board is a wall of resistors. These resistors were connected to the motors in series to throttle them (an extremely wasteful approach -- excess energy is lost to heat) ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/04/return-to-carrie.html/feed 0 Pickling Line and Annealing Mill http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/pickling-line-and-annealing-mill.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/pickling-line-and-annealing-mill.html#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:15:25 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2118

Bell heaters for the annealing mill. Each one fits over a single stack of ribbon coils.

The latest adventure is to a cold-press facility. This site had four different cold press machines: a pickling line, a tandem mill, a temper mill, and an annealing mill, as well as one big-azz mystery oven.

Steel is delivered to the site in ribbon coils, from a steel furnace. You can see one of the coils, in fairly poor shape, next to my friend in the shot below. The first stage is to remove the oxidation, that’s where the pickling line comes in. The ribbons are fed through acid tanks to remove the oxidation layer, and then recoiled. In the gallery below, there is a shot of the pickling tanks, though there isn’t much to see.

Coil of Steel Ribbon (with friend for scale)

The ribbons are then fed into the temper mill, which hardens the steel. From there, the tandem mill produces whatever thickness the customer desires in the steel ribbons. I wasn’t able to get any decent shots of the tandem mill, as it was shrouded by tarps to keep it warm, or the temper mill, because the shot I took didn’t turn out very well.

An unfortunate side effect of the cold mills is that the steel loses some of its workability, and is more difficult to stamp or press. In order to counter this effect, an annealing mill carefully heats the steel to its re-crystallization temperature, allowing the crystals to re-align, and then it is slowly cooled back to room temperature for delivery. Annealing is carried out in several different ways. In the photos below you can see pillars of corrugated metal. These pillars cover a stack of three or four coils, and help control the heating and cooling rates. These pillars can be heated individually with a heating bell, or in groups of three via a heating box. I’m not sure of the benefits/drawbacks of the two techniques, but you can see that both are in use interspersed in the same facility below.

You can view these photos in a flickr set.

Controls for the Pickling Line. Machinery that feeds steel ribbon into continuous pickling line. Possibly includes a welding torch to attach the end of one ribbon to the start of another for continuous pickling. Pickling Tanks, which hold hydrochloric acid for stripping the oxidation layer from the steel ribbons. This is the end of the pickling line, where the ribbons are re-coiled for the next mill. Coil of Steel Ribbon (with friend for scale) This pin attaches to the end of the rollers in the temper and tandem mills, and serves as a drive train, transferring rotational energy from the motor to the roller. Inside of mystery oven. Opening at the far end looks like the entry feed, there are holes every few feet on both sides, and several holes at the exit behind me. Interior of an oven of some kind. It's lined with refractory bricks, obviously this chamber gets hot, but we're not sure what it's for. First thought was an open hearth, but the steel beams inside would melt, so it's not getting that hot. First gen annealing mill? If you know, please tell. Copper piping is awesome when it oxidizes. Annealing Mill. This shot shows several stacks, enclosed by metal sleeves. None of the heaters are present. Box heaters for the annealing mill. Each one covers three stacks. Bell heaters for the annealing mill. Each one fits over a single stack of ribbon coils. ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/pickling-line-and-annealing-mill.html/feed 0 Gnomestomp http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/gnomestomp.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/gnomestomp.html#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:30:31 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2100

The Villagnome

We Villanova Basketball fans have an unofficial mascot, the Villagnome, who is personified in a facebook page and twitter account. But, the Villagnome isn’t just an abstract mascot, many of us fans purchase our very own gnomes to cheer on the Cats with. Along with these gnomes, though, comes an uncomfortable tradition.

Each year, in the NCAA Basketball Tournament, the Villagnome’s boots start to shake. It has become tradition that, upon Villanova’s loss and elimination from the tournament, the Villagnome must commit ritual suicide. Just like a sacrificial lamb, all of the failures and losses of a season are taken by the gnome, and shattered with his frame.

I’m a little fuzzy on how the tradition was started, but the first act was committed by renton66, who is also responsible for starting the life of this unofficial mascot. After someone attempted a “death by 20-story drop” following a particularly shameful regular season loss, it was decided that all suicide attempts must have his blessing.

As has been the case every time that Villanova has entered the tournament since 1985, we were eliminated (albeit much earlier than hoped or anticipated), and I was told to “execute order 66.” You can see the result below.

The method of execution is part of the tradition as well. In fact, not only is it traditional to curb stomp the gnome, but I was told that Vans old skools would be preferable shoes to wear because “the little guy would want it that way”. It goes back to his first death. Given his stiff arms, the Villagnome is incapable of performing hara-kiri, so renton66 did the honorable thing for him. The goal is to recreate this moment as closely as possible.

Unable to perform hara-kiri himself, the Villagnome takes the only honorable way out for letting down the masses of Villanova basketball fans with the Nova loss at the hands of UNC in the Final Four. He will be missed, but he will be back.

Here’s to hoping the next generation survives the 2010-2001 season unscathed.

]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/gnomestomp.html/feed 0 Colorado http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/colorado.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/colorado.html#comments Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:16:38 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2081 I had intended last week on doing a daily post, a la travel blogs, but an iffy internet connection, and the loads of fun I was having, conspired to prevent that.  As such, I’m only making one post with some highlights from the trip, and a collection of what I think were the most memorable photos.

The first three photos are the view from outside my brother’s apartment, the next four are from a ski trip to Arapahoe Basin, and the final three are from Stranahan’s Distillery in Denver.

If you want to see more, you’ll have to find me on facebook and look at my photo albums.

Panoramic view of a reservoir and shrouded mountains on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park A cloud covered peak, at Rocky Mountain National Park Panoramic shot (180 degrees) of the view along our hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Alison is ready to go. Trying very hard to compose the perfect photo. My brother and I, at the Black Mountain Lodge at Arapahoe Basin. This is the view down from near the top of Arapahoe Basin. The lodge in the distance if half-way down the mountain. There is another drop that you cannot see below it. Stranahan's is distilled in a copper column still that looks like it's 150 years old...but it was custom made less than a decade ago. Some beer (I forget what kinds) and a shot of Stranahan's whiskey. Sampling some of Stranahan's fine product. ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/colorado.html/feed 0 Eldora Mountain Resort http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/eldora-mountain-resort.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/eldora-mountain-resort.html#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:00:53 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2071

The Summit. 10,800 feet. That's probably a 12,000 foot peak behind us.

I’ve been skiing three times before, all of them in Pennsylvania. So, when I decided to visit my brother in Colorado, I kind of had to go skiing. He’s never been, so we looked for the best mountain for beginners, and were told that was Eldora.

It was pretty good. They have a beginner’s lift ticket for only $20, but we discovered that it only covers one lift, and that there is only one run down from that lift. So, I opted to go for a full pass. We only used two of their five lifts, but it was definitely worth it to have more than just their easiest run at our disposal.

Patrick picked up the basics pretty quickly, but I may have pushed him a bit hard. We tried some blues in the beginner’s area, and he was feeling pretty good. We wanted to take a lift to the summit for the view, but it turns out those blues were a little steeper, and a little more challenging.

Check out the gallery below for a few shots from the trip. These were taken with my pocket camera, didn’t want to risk breaking that fancy rented lens on the slopes.

-aigulf

Ready to go The lift Our hats are silly when we're moving quickly. Snack break The Summit. 10,800 feet. That's probably a 12,000 foot peak behind us. Patrick, on the summit. ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/eldora-mountain-resort.html/feed 0 Avery Brewing & Walker Ranch Park http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/avery-brewing-walker-ranch-park.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/avery-brewing-walker-ranch-park.html#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:03:41 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2053

Out of Bounds Stout....very nice.

Day #1 in Colorado: I toured a brewery. It was quite a trip. Not much to say. The beer is good, the tour was fun, and they have quite a variety.

For the first round, I had the Out of Bounds Stout, and my brother tried the 15th Anniversary Ale. Round Two was Dry-Hopped IPA for me and Hog Heaven Barleywine Ale for him. The third round was The Reverend Belgian-Style Quadruple Ale and the Collaboration Not Litigation Ale.

We probably would have tried more, there was quite a list, but we had to hit the road. We planned a hike in Walker Ranch Park and didn’t want to have to race against dusk. Walker Ranch was pretty nice, the hike was fairly short, just 1.5mi out, but like every trail out here, there was quite a bit of elevation change. Surprisingly, the thin air didn’t get to me as much as I thought it would. Check out the gallery below for a few shots.

The final three shots are from outside my brother’s apartment. Nice view, huh?

-aigulf

Out of Bounds Stout....very nice. Patrick, enjoying round 3 (Collaboration not Litigation Ale) They age some of their brews in spent bourbon, rum, and wine barrels for added flavor and aroma. Waiting for Spring Falling off a rock wall Canyon Creek Rushing Water This is what happens when I see an ice bridge. I absolutely must collapse the ice. Summit Panoramic shot of Walker Ranch Panoramic shot of the Flat Irons, behind my brother's apartment. HDR shot of the Flat Irons. Trailhead in front of the Flat Irons ]]> http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/avery-brewing-walker-ranch-park.html/feed 0 Renting a Lens http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/renting-a-lens.html http://blog.odonoughue.org/2010/03/renting-a-lens.html#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:57:52 +0000 Nicholas O'Donoughue http://blog.odonoughue.org/?p=2051 I’m visiting my brother in Colorado next week. It’ll be my first time to Colorado in almost a decade, and the first time I’ll have a chance to look around and actually explore the area.

Consequently, I’m bringing my camera.

I’ve also realized that my wide angle lens leaves some sharpness to be desired. I’ve been drooling over Nikon’s 14-24mm f/2.8G lens for a few months, and decided that Colorado’s picturesque vistas will be the perfect place to see if I can push this lens and see its benefits.

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G

So, I’m renting one from lensrentals.com (I tried rentglass.com, but they were out of stock). It arrives tomorrow, enough time to play around and get used to it before I leave. Wish me luck.

-aigulf

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