| Author | Thread |
|
|
03/22/2008 05:45:14 PM · #1 |
St. Francis Hospital, uptown Pittsburgh, was scheduled to be imploded early this morning to make way for the Pens' new arena. I wouldn't have made it then, but when I heard it was rescheduled for two o'clock (due to the "bad weather" -- the dusting of snow we got overnight), I decided to check it out.
I hadn't used my camera's burst feature before this afternoon, and in the car on the way there while my wife was driving probably wasn't the time or place to learn (I got dozens of yawn-inducing shots of the ride there). Still I felt I figured it out well enough to get some decent photos of this.
I decided that atop one of the parking garages at Duquesne University would offer a good view. I set up the tripod, set picture mode to HQ for faster processing, took a few sample shots, and then we all sat back and froze (I try to turn photo shoots into family outings where possible). Technically it's spring, but it was in the thirties today, snowing slightly, and a brisk wind was blowing. And guess in what direction -- toward us from the implosion site.
After about fifteen minutes of waiting, I decided to turn the monitor of my camera off for a few minutes to save the battery. No sooner did I do that than I heard the first bangs. I began to fumble to get set up again, and it's probably a good thing it happened that way. I forgot that a good five to ten seconds passes between the sound of the first explosion and the first sign of the structure starting to give. I would have gotten a burst of shots of nothing and then the building would have fallen while I was resetting.
So I got a good two-thirds of the implosion and then a burst of shots of the dust cloud that swallowed up the whole scene. We picked up and took off before the cloud arrived.
Not sure what I could have done differently or how I could have paced myself to capture more of the scene. I'm open to suggestions. In any case, here's what I captured:
EDIT: Minimal processing here, by the way. Levels, USM, resize, JPG. That seemed to be enough...
Message edited by author 2008-03-22 20:35:07. |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 05:47:14 PM · #2 |
Good job, you caught the best bits:)) Seems the advice was good?
Now, on to youtube:) |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 05:48:32 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by SteveJ:
Good job, you caught the best bits:)) Seems the advice was good?
Now, on to youtube:) |
Yes. My son took video with his camera. I need to see what he got... |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 06:49:58 PM · #4 |
man !! - thankfully i don't live in the adjacent neighborhood or anywhere nearby.
seems a bit of a waste IMO.
but good capture of the process.
|
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:10:01 PM · #5 |
Oh that's KILLA! You did it just right!
R.
|
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:19:49 PM · #6 |
You done good! Thanks.
It's pretty cool the way the windows sort of sheared downward evenly in the first few frames. That's the way to demolish a building. Your "oops" worked out just right with the restart at the first detonations. I think that you captured the best part of the show just right. The even timing between shots is nice too, as it shows the exact timing of the building dropping to the ground.
So, did you contact the press about using some of them yet? I am guessing that there were a lot of photogs on site for this event, but maybe not since it got rescheduled.
|
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:24:24 PM · #7 |
Cool sequence, well done..
I'm wondering how loud it was?? |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:39:13 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by soup:
man !! - thankfully i don't live in the adjacent neighborhood or anywhere nearby.
seems a bit of a waste IMO.
but good capture of the process. |
Yes, the taxpayers here are real excited about funding the THIRD brand new sports venue to be built from the ground up in ten years. So uptown is being leveled. In this case, the building was so solid and perhaps overbuilt that it wouldn't yield to less catastrophic means of demolition. They tried for weeks.
And yes, business owners in the adjacent neighborhoods were real pleased to find that they lost storefront windows in the wake of the blast. |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:40:31 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by MelonMusketeer:
You done good! Thanks.
It's pretty cool the way the windows sort of sheared downward evenly in the first few frames. That's the way to demolish a building. Your "oops" worked out just right with the restart at the first detonations. I think that you captured the best part of the show just right. The even timing between shots is nice too, as it shows the exact timing of the building dropping to the ground.
So, did you contact the press about using some of them yet? I am guessing that there were a lot of photogs on site for this event, but maybe not since it got rescheduled. |
There were news crews and photographers everywhere actually.
Thanks to all for the feedback. It was fun... |
|
|
|
03/22/2008 07:42:08 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by buzzrock:
Cool sequence, well done..
I'm wondering how loud it was?? |
Loud certainly, but not deafening. Still, after some "false alarms," that first blast left no doubt that the the thing was commencing... |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 01:28:19 AM · #11 |
Those are some great sequence photos! Congrats!
The only thing I would suggest for change is that you change the names of the photos from Imposion to Implosion. :-)
|
|
|
|
03/23/2008 01:44:25 AM · #12 |
Originally posted by AperturePriority:
Those are some great sequence photos! Congrats!
The only thing I would suggest for change is that you change the names of the photos from Imposion to Implosion. :-) |
It was so loud that it blew the "L" out of it. : )
|
|
|
|
03/23/2008 02:55:40 AM · #13 |
Originally posted by bvy:
EDIT: Minimal processing here, by the way. Levels, USM, resize, JPG. That seemed to be enough... |
5/9 would make an interesting Pattern III entry! |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 04:29:23 AM · #14 |
| Fantastic series of shots! |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 09:13:57 AM · #15 |
Originally posted by MelonMusketeer:
Originally posted by AperturePriority:
Those are some great sequence photos! Congrats!
The only thing I would suggest for change is that you change the names of the photos from Imposion to Implosion. :-) |
It was so loud that it blew the "L" out of it. : ) |
Yikes! Thanks for pointing that out. Obviously a quick copy and paste job. |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 11:17:01 AM · #16 |
I really liked 2 and 6.
2 because at first glance nothing seems wrong. And then you notice the right side bending down and think "hmmmm ..."
6 because of the stark contrast left to right. The left side looks perfectly normal while the right is in chaos.
Good work!
|
|
|
|
03/23/2008 01:05:05 PM · #17 |
Thanks for sharing Brian... those are awesome shots. Good thing it happened the way it did (with your battery save), or this thread probably would not exist (or just have been really boring) ;O)
Love the last shot with the debris flying everywhere. Almost looks like a "Dante's Peak" kinda cloud coming at you. I probably would've high-tailed it at the same time you did! |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 03:35:12 PM · #18 |
|
|
|
03/23/2008 05:00:53 PM · #19 |
| I didn't even know this was happening, I wish I could have made the drive downtown to capture it too! Awesome shots, brian! |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/12/2025 03:13:26 PM EDT.
