Time For Award-Winning Engineering Photography
Something is changing in construction photography. The pictures are getting strikingly better. That’s the only conclusion we could come to after our panel of judges finished reviewing the 1,564 entries to ENR’s 2012, The Year in Construction Photo Contest. Not only did the judges give their highest marks to far more images than ever before, but the second- and third-place finishers were almost equally impressive.
The photos are evaluated by a fresh panel of judges each year. They examine every photo, together, in a room. They base their decisions purely on the images. They do not know the names of the photographers nor their companies; they just vote yes when they like what they see and go through several rounds of refinement.
Some photographers, both professionals and amateurs, have a knack for landing wins. Patrick Cashin, Alissa Holliman, Kathrine Du Tiel, Stephen SetteDucati, Adam Pass, Thiel Harryman, Paul Turang and David Lloyd, who shot this year’s cover, either have been winners before, show up more than once in this year’s gallery—or both.
When our editors contact the winners to learn the stories behind their photos, we often find top photographers have this in common: They speak of forethought, preparation and their deep respect and admiration for the people and processes of the construction world. They speak of approaching every shot with the goal of attaining superlative results, including winners like principal engineer Alan Lavery, who makes a point of seriously shooting all of his projects on a monthly basis as if he were landing them in the pages of a magazine.
Photographer: Stephen SetteDucati
Title: Pontiac Plant demolition, Pontiac, Michigan USA
Description: Stephen SetteDucati, director of marketing and media, MCM Management Corp., says he knew his photo could be “potentially fantastic,” as he climbed onto the ledge of a building overlooking demolition yards of an old Pontiac assembly plant, to get it.
Title: Pontiac Plant demolition, Pontiac, Michigan USA
Description: Stephen SetteDucati, director of marketing and media, MCM Management Corp., says he knew his photo could be “potentially fantastic,” as he climbed onto the ledge of a building overlooking demolition yards of an old Pontiac assembly plant, to get it.
Photographer: Nicky Almasy
Title: Shanghai’s Triplets, Shanghai, China
Description: From a hotel roof across the river, Almasy used a Canon Mark II with a 70-200 lens to capture the city’s three tallest buildings—Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Centre. “It was very bad rainy weather, and I used the blue after-effect later,” he says. A photographer for eight years, Almasy left his native Hungary at age 17, first for London then for New York, and became a music journalist. In 2006, he moved to Shanghai, fascinated by its development. He has been shooting Shanghai Tower’s construction for two years.
Title: Shanghai’s Triplets, Shanghai, China
Description: From a hotel roof across the river, Almasy used a Canon Mark II with a 70-200 lens to capture the city’s three tallest buildings—Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Centre. “It was very bad rainy weather, and I used the blue after-effect later,” he says. A photographer for eight years, Almasy left his native Hungary at age 17, first for London then for New York, and became a music journalist. In 2006, he moved to Shanghai, fascinated by its development. He has been shooting Shanghai Tower’s construction for two years.
Photographer: Martin Chandrawinata
Title: San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, California, USA
Description: A Hanna Group construction engineer and a native of Indonesia, Chandrawinata took this photo in early morning as workers prepared for the impending installation of the self-anchored suspension bridge’s eastern span main cable. It is the crown jewel of a more than $6-billion replacement project. The fog inspired the idea for the photo and stirred a bit of nostalgia as well. “When I reached the office, I noticed how foggy it was, so I went to the field, up to the tower top and shot this worker on a catwalk,” he says. “I like the early morning fog … it reminds me of being on the mountain when I was little.”
Title: San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, California, USA
Description: A Hanna Group construction engineer and a native of Indonesia, Chandrawinata took this photo in early morning as workers prepared for the impending installation of the self-anchored suspension bridge’s eastern span main cable. It is the crown jewel of a more than $6-billion replacement project. The fog inspired the idea for the photo and stirred a bit of nostalgia as well. “When I reached the office, I noticed how foggy it was, so I went to the field, up to the tower top and shot this worker on a catwalk,” he says. “I like the early morning fog … it reminds me of being on the mountain when I was little.”
Photographer: Patrick J. Cashin
Title: Second Ave. Subway Tunnel Bore, New York City, USA
Description: Cashin’s dramatic depiction of work beneath New York City appears in these pages for the fifth consecutive year, an unparalleled achievement. At Newsweek magazine 12 years ago, the photographer says he “saw the light” and moved into the dark as a Metropolitan Transit Authority staff photographer. Here he captures a sand hog waiting for the go-ahead to move large boulders in the 72nd St. station excavation. Working with a Nikon D4 in cramped low-light conditions, Cashin prefers tight shots with 35-70 mm and 17-35 mm lenses.
Title: Second Ave. Subway Tunnel Bore, New York City, USA
Description: Cashin’s dramatic depiction of work beneath New York City appears in these pages for the fifth consecutive year, an unparalleled achievement. At Newsweek magazine 12 years ago, the photographer says he “saw the light” and moved into the dark as a Metropolitan Transit Authority staff photographer. Here he captures a sand hog waiting for the go-ahead to move large boulders in the 72nd St. station excavation. Working with a Nikon D4 in cramped low-light conditions, Cashin prefers tight shots with 35-70 mm and 17-35 mm lenses.
Photographer: Alan Lavery
Title: Benone Area Sewerage Scheme, Migilligan, Northern Ireland
Description: Lavery, the principal engineer on an AECOM job in Northern Ireland, shoots serious project shots of all his projects every month. He met this excavator waiting for low tide to work on an outfall, and he tested the exposures for the clouds and shadows. This led him to use a .6 graduated filter on the sky and a 10-stop neutral density filter to slow the shutter to 45 seconds so the moving clouds would smear.
Title: Benone Area Sewerage Scheme, Migilligan, Northern Ireland
Description: Lavery, the principal engineer on an AECOM job in Northern Ireland, shoots serious project shots of all his projects every month. He met this excavator waiting for low tide to work on an outfall, and he tested the exposures for the clouds and shadows. This led him to use a .6 graduated filter on the sky and a 10-stop neutral density filter to slow the shutter to 45 seconds so the moving clouds would smear.
Photographer: Louw Swanepoel
Submitter: Suzette Schreuder, Royal HaskoningDHV
Title: Low-pressure headrace tunnel, Ingula, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Description: Swanepoel, a program engineer with Eskom, the government-owned power company in South Africa, captured this “light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel” shot of a lined headrace shaft interior, 116 stories below ground in the Little Drakensberg range. The 1,333-MW, $3.5-billion pumped-storage hydropower project began in 2008 and the first turbine is set to come online in 2014.
Submitter: Suzette Schreuder, Royal HaskoningDHV
Title: Low-pressure headrace tunnel, Ingula, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Description: Swanepoel, a program engineer with Eskom, the government-owned power company in South Africa, captured this “light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel” shot of a lined headrace shaft interior, 116 stories below ground in the Little Drakensberg range. The 1,333-MW, $3.5-billion pumped-storage hydropower project began in 2008 and the first turbine is set to come online in 2014.
Photographer: Joe Ebertsch
Submitter: Jill Badzinski, Michels Corp.
Title: Eva Creek Wind Farm, Ferry, Alaska, USA
Description: Joe Ebertsch, an assistant project manager for Michels Wind Energy, took this picture at the end of a long day in which two turbines were erected. The project, which involved putting up 12 turbines altogether, had been delayed due to heavy wind conditions, so erecting a pair after the wind subsided a bit was a “boost to morale,” Ebertsch says, and the sunset at the end of the day was icing on the cake, he says. “It was real pretty,” he adds.
Submitter: Jill Badzinski, Michels Corp.
Title: Eva Creek Wind Farm, Ferry, Alaska, USA
Description: Joe Ebertsch, an assistant project manager for Michels Wind Energy, took this picture at the end of a long day in which two turbines were erected. The project, which involved putting up 12 turbines altogether, had been delayed due to heavy wind conditions, so erecting a pair after the wind subsided a bit was a “boost to morale,” Ebertsch says, and the sunset at the end of the day was icing on the cake, he says. “It was real pretty,” he adds.
Photographer: Stephen SetteDucati
Title: Former GM stamping plant, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Description: SetteDucati, director of marketing and media for MCM Management Corp., says he snapped this photo of a worker whose sole job is to repair blades, grapples and other equipment like the six-inch teeth on this concrete pulverizer, or “muncher,” as he calls it. “It’s hard to get the right shot because the glare of an arc welder would do serious damage to my sensor,” says SetteDucati. “It’s brighter than the sun.”
Title: Former GM stamping plant, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA
Description: SetteDucati, director of marketing and media for MCM Management Corp., says he snapped this photo of a worker whose sole job is to repair blades, grapples and other equipment like the six-inch teeth on this concrete pulverizer, or “muncher,” as he calls it. “It’s hard to get the right shot because the glare of an arc welder would do serious damage to my sensor,” says SetteDucati. “It’s brighter than the sun.”
No comments:
Post a Comment