Bottle Farm

Posted by Twelvebit (Victoria, United States) on 11 February 2008 in Business & Industry.

This week I'm going industrial. I shot this and the following images at 3200 ISO. I got a few things I liked so I went back with a tripod intending to reshoot at ISO 100. I did some reshooting but I also found myself seeing different things once I had the camera anchored to the tripod. I'll be posting the results of this later expedition in a week or two --after I've had some time to do some processing.

I posted these images at JPG Magazine, along with the following essay --but it has gotten zero traction.

Night has, among other things, the power to transform your environment into something like a Hollywood movie set. What is not illuminated is not seen --or not seen well. Unwanted details, and even larger elements, are obscured or hidden by darkness. Sometimes what is unremarkable in daylight, boring, or even ugly, takes on a completely different character at night --and becomes dramatic, eerie, colorful, surreal, ominous, or just interesting enough to point a camera at.

Industrial environments may be particularly susceptible to night improvement because there is so much in their daylight visage that begs to be obscured. The industrial landscape is illuminated at night for practical and functional purposes and this utilitarian approach to lighting can create high-contrast drama and eerie juxtapositions of shape and color.

I do find some elements of this particular industrial landscape interesting in daylight but I really love the atmosphere at night, when stripped of the many people who work here during the day and shrouded in darkness, it envelopes the senses with a mood of unexpected desolation.

Nikon D80
1/30 second
F/3.8
33 mm (35mm equiv.)

bottles
green
plant
power
bottle
gas
3200