Saturday, March 7, 2009

2009_03_07_time for a change, bradvest.com/blog

2009_03_07_time for a change, bradvest.com/blog



Things are changing. I've decided to finally start hosting my blog on my own web space. I haven't quite gotten my actual website up and running yet, but I think hosting my blog on that space will work out better for me than using a blogger account. No more unsaturated colors and blacks, no more strange sizing methodology before posting. It's a pretty simple blog still but better. I'll be using a word press account on my website which will allow me more freedom to customize my blog, size my photos, and include more personalized posts.

So from now on everything will be posted at bradvest.com/blog. I hope you'll continue to follow my adventures and enjoy the photography and ramblings of myself in this new space.

Again, as always, thanks for looking. And I'll see you at bradvest.com/blog

Thanks,
Brad Vest

bradvest.com/blog

Monday, March 2, 2009

2009_03_02_Way of the wagon

2009_03_02_Way of the wagon



Heading out of town for a couple days into western Kansas for some assignments; number, location, and information of said assignments remains unknown. Well, I know of one but since we'll be going so far away we try to cover a lot of stuff to make the trip worth while.

I just hope I find some time to shoot random things for myself. I think I'll be toting the tripod along this time also.... maybe do a few nighttime shots. I should really order the trigger for my canon so that I can make an exposure that's longer than 30 seconds.

I'll bring my Rollei and Holga along for the ride also. I'm running extremely low on 120 film though. I've only got a few shots left in the Rollei and maybe two in my Holga. I can only imagine those will be gone by the time I get home on Wednesday. Problem is I shoot quite a bit of film but have so much to be developed I should probably slow down a tad until it's all been souped. It'll be surprising when I get the film done though, I've forgotten what was even shot on some of it.

Probably be a little incognito for the next couple of days while I'm gone, hopefully I'll have some nice stuff to throw up when I get back though.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Sunday, March 1, 2009

2009_03_01_Mining the creative

2009_03_01_Mining the creative

Heading down into the Hutchinson Salt Mine was one of the more interesting day long shoots I've been on. I drove up to the mine at around 5:30 am to grab all of my safety gear and still beat the first miners arriving for their shift. After a quick introduction to the guys it was time to get to work, for all of us.


Heading down into the mine.

After the miners had quick cup of coffee it was off the the lift down 650 feet into the mine. I was expecting the ride to be a slow jostled trip into the depths, but was soon to be surprised by the little lift that could. The lift, with five miners and a photographer crammed into the small 5x5 space (maybe), shot down must faster than expected. Covering the 650 foot journey in maybe 45 seconds or so with bumps along the way as the sides ground against the shaft in a deep black one would only expect to encounter deep in the Mariana trench. As the cart dropped further and further into the earth the conversation between miners was littered with the sounds of 3 second exposures and the incessant fumbling of controls through the jury rigged, hopefully salt proof protective bag I had taped around my camera in my early morning haze over a giant cup of sumatran coffee.

Just as I started to think about what I would find at the end of this lift ride light started to come up through the floor of the small cart, close. I was surprised at how strongly lit the mine was, this will be easy I thought, things changed. We all gathered outside the shaft as one of the miners walked off and retrieved one of their custom mine transporters, an old chevy suburban that had the roof cut off, no doors, and a completely stripped interior with the seats being bolted back into place. Off we went and off went the light. Soon we were being solely guided by the two headlamps of the old bio diesel salt truck.

The rest of the dark day was spent in the newest areas of the mine and the makeshift break room that the miners keep near the area where they are currently mining. The miners were working on drilling and blasting away new salt faces to bring down 300 tons of new salt each time to haul off to the conveyor and up to the surface.

Hopefully during my time here I can find a few more opportunities to head down into the mine. I am definitely going to try and spend a few more days with these guys and make some more of the infinite images that exist in this place.

Either way, here are just a few of the photos that I made in this strange, unique place.

Thanks for looking.

Best,
Brad Vest




Once you step foot into the salt mine you realize that pretty much everything is coated in a fine powder of salt, like the consistency of powder.


There is absolutely no light down in the working area of the mine except the light that comes from the machines and the miners headlamps. In other words, it was harsh to shoot in.








A long exposure of the LHD, load haul dump, front end loader coming to drop off a 4 ton load of salt. The salt is then hauled off by the conveyor over to the mine shaft where 2 buckets bring the salt up to the surface.


A shot from my camera as it rides along the conveyor belt with the salt.


The salt that is blasted off the walls is in relatively large chunks that need to be ground up before entering the conveyor. With that said, all the salt that drops on the ground, drilled, and cut out of the walls is turned into a fine powder after being run over by the large machines hundreds of times.


A long exposure of miners working at the end of a tunnel. Again, the only light in the mine comes from the workers machines and headlamps.




This way.... to the batcave.


The salt mine was nothing like I expected. No small spaces, just large vast areas of blasted salt with columns set to hold up the ever increasing grid of openness where the salt is mined from.




This is my favorite shot from the day. The salt pattern, the chairs, and the miners during one of their breaks says a lot about the place, and the people that work in this place.... Not to mention the calender on the wall.


The miners have to sharpen about a 2 gallon bucket load of the cutter and drill tips each day to keep them sharp enough to cut the salt efficiently.








Heading up after a long day in the mine.

Listening to: Blame it on the Tetons, Modest Mouse

Saturday, February 28, 2009

2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated

2009_02_28_overcast, under appreciated



peace,
Brad Vest

Friday, February 27, 2009

2009_02_27_

2009_02_27_

Airplanes rarely venture near this place, just jet streams on the horizon.



Best,
Brad Vest

Thursday, February 26, 2009

2009_02_26_

2009_02_26_



-brad

2009_02_26_mining preview

2009_02_26_mining preview

As you know I headed down into the Hutchinson Salt Mine this past Tuesday. I spent the entire day shift down in the mine with the workers. The Ad Astra photo page isn't inked until this Sunday so I can't share any of the actual photos. But here are just a few behind the scenes shots.


I had to tag up before heading down into the mine like every other miner. You leave one tag at the surface and keep one tag on you. This is in case of emergencies they know who is down in the mine. As I was going through the safety training the manager joked... 'for some reason they make them out of brass, so when you're stuck in the mine and burn up it's easy to identify you by the melted drop of metal seeing as brass melts at 200 degrees.' Haha, not very funny.


The self rescuer that turns poisonous CO into CO2. Granted it doesn't add any oxygen so if you're using this thing you better be moving quickly to the exit.


Sparkly salt ceiling.


I was shooting the powder man who's in charge of setting the explosives in each and just as we finished up the first wall it was time to move on to the next wall a few hundred yards away. The truck he uses the get around only has one seat in the front so I saddled up with my legs hanging over the side of the flatbed. Just as he was getting in the front he called back, 'you can sit on the explosives if you want'. Why not. Riding around with the powder man on top of around 1000 lbs of ammonium nitrate explosives, it was ironically comfortable.


ESCAPE WAY!


I turned a 5 dollar camera rain jacket into pretty much a completely sealed jacket to keep the abundant salt particles off my gear.


Since the camera was completely sealed with the bag and close to a full roll of electrical tape this made controlling the camera difficult. I do know how to control everything in the dark by touch, but the bag made the controls much more sluggish and slippery. It was tough when adjusting from a iso3200 @ 1/15th shot to an iso 640 shot @ 1/50th.

Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, Vampire Weekend

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

2009_02_25_Don Quixote for a day

I felt like the obsessive fictional hero as I somewhat frantically drove around the four square miles or so of roads that surrounded the thirty-three newly constructed windmills outside the small Kansas town of Marienthal. However, instead of battling the windmills in a more chivalrous endeavor, I was dealing with something much more fleeting and obscure, the light.

After driving over four hours straight west into the vast, barren, brown land known as western Kansas and only being a few handfuls of miles from the Colorado border I was banking deeply on the fact that the sky would open up and give me one of her more fantastic sunsets to work with. After all, the sole reason I came all this way was to make a pictorial type photo, beautiful in its nature, of the windmills for the upcoming cover for one of the four sections of The Hutchinson News' yearly progress section.

When the light started to fade I knew it would either be a great sunset or there wouldn't be one at all. Clouds had started to roll in which is actually a great thing since clouds make the sky more dynamic and actually enhance the colors of the sunset. But, with those benefits also comes a huge downside, clouds can completely kill a sunset by blocking out the light. At the beginning it was great, the sun was parting the clouds and creating beautiful shades of color on the clouds and reflecting off the large reflective bases of the windmills.



I became worried though just as the sun was starting to get into it's peak position it was matted out by the clouds. I waited and waited but nothing changed the sun just stuck to the back of a huge set of clouds concealing all the light except for a few shades of not so fantastic grey. Just as I was about to call it a day she broke through right at the horizon line and lit up the entire cloud mass that used to be blocking here.

It worked out for some wonderful pictures and a great trip.

Thanks for looking.
-Brad Vest








After about 20 minutes of nothing but grey, the sun appeared again and gave a wonderful show of color for about ten minutes before continuing on to other parts of the western hemisphere.


This is the photo we chose to run for the cover of the wind progress section. It was so great to see the way we used the photos for the covers of each section. We went big! Each section front was just a photo, no text, no graphics, just a giant photo welcoming readers into the section.

Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Stork and Owl, Tv on the Radio

2009_02_25_hear that sound

2009_02_25_hear that sound



I miss the Puget Sound and that city that sits off her eastern side.

Best,
Brad Vest

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

2009_02_24_ballers

2009_02_24_ballers



Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: I Hold Nothing, Mount Eerie

2009_02_24_Working in a sodium chloride mine going down down down

2009_02_24_Working in a sodium chloride mine going down down down

Right about now I'll be stepping onto an elevator and descending about seventy stories below the surface of the earth into a strange, dark, and dusty place, the Hutchinson Salt Mine. I'll be spending the day with the workers documenting their underground lives. I'm not quite sure what to expect except for really challenging lighting and a nice dry 65 degree day without the sun.



I lightened everything out of my bag except for the essentials and a lunch consisting of a couple pb and j sandwiches, a banana, a granny smith apple, and a bottle of water. That way it will be much easier to get around all day.


Lightened load, only the essentials.


Fully charged batteries for a full day of shooting. I marked them a while back so that I know which are spent and which still have a charge when I am sifting through my bag.

Other than that all I have to carry, among other things, is a certified breather that's about the size of mango, but in rectangle form. The breather only weighs about 3 pounds and in case of emergency it turns poisonous carbon monoxide into harmless carbon dioxide to allow for greater time to run out of the mine. Knock on wood, don't worry though, salt mining is actually very safe, especially when compared to coal mining.


Waiver and releases let you know what you'll be doing is exciting.

I also sorta enhanced the seals on my camera with some electrical tape and rubber bands to keep the salt dust from getting in where it shouldn't. If the mine is worse than I am anticipating as far as particles in the air and getting all over my camera I'm also bringing down two weather bags that fit around my cameras and lenses. I really don't want to use those though, they are a real pain in the butt.


Super seal, patent pending.

Other than that I guess there isn't much. I'm really excited to get down there and start making pictures. I'm leaving my apartment at 5am or so to get to the mine before the workers start to arrive to capture the whole process of one of their full work days.

So, if you need to get in touch with me tomorrow, good luck, my phone won't have much signal due to the interference of 700 feet of rock, sand, dirt, and salt.

See you topside,
Brad Vest

Listening to: Your rocky spine, Great Lake Swimmers

Monday, February 23, 2009

2009_02_23_partly organic

2009_02_23_partly organic



Thanks for looking,
Brad Vest

Listening to: I've got it all (most), Modest Mouse

2009_02_23_Youth rodeo

2009_02_23_Youth Rodeo





































As always, thanks for taking a look.

Best,
Brad Vest

Listening to: upon this tidal wave of young blood, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah