Three for three

Today was a rather unexpected mix of events. I have a lot of things on my plate but today I was the kid that chose to eat her veggies cold the next morning instead of warm for dinner. A good piece of advice that was once given to me: The world won't end if you disappear for a moment. Today I disappeared.


When walking through a sleeping building, sometimes the place really does lie unchanged while the seasons roll past. If you're lucky. Most structures see scrappers, vandals, animals and the slow atrophy by weather. This one - like the other buildings that make up the band of brothers - is relatively preserved, a miniature museum of local power-generating history. While ceiling paint has flaked into rough dandruff chips on the ground that pop under your feet and the traffic outside thunders like marching giants, we are seemingly the only intruders in decades. Unlike the other buildings, not a single dead pigeon can be found and the drip of rainwater through the decaying roof is minimal. Time and weather have not been completely stymied as is evident in the huge mushroom-like plates of organic muck growing near the filtered light on the concrete. But the foundation is solid and the bones are good. He will live again, and soon.

In this little explorer's paradise I feel safe as houses. Beautiful clear autumn sun filters in through the thick dirty windows and outside I can see both skyscrapers and the sea. Jolly in the privacy, creative possibilities seem endless. This little powerhouse is clean enough to satisfy my love for the abstract and yet interesting enough to present good subjects. Today the light is lovely, so what else could I want?

Also today, empty hanging light fixtures are dubbed the new mistletoe of abandonments!


Johnstone Energy and the cluster of power substations that I have photographed over the past year will soon be nothing but a memory. Those who know me understand that I am reluctant to visit a place multiple times because I get easily bored, however this year I am grateful to have as many wonderful opportunities to capture the unique, abstract perfection that these buildings have shown me. In this business, nothing lasts forever and it's an important lesson for me to learn.

Once home, post-processing was also a delight. Playing hookie just a bit longer, my photos are already done. I have learned so much in the last year that sometimes I worry that I am forgetting something important and basic... or that the education will soon plateau. However, working with these files was a real delight. Some days I can't seem to get a single shot right and I end up with a slew of half-finished .psd files that just suck space on my HD. This time the cosmos threw me a bone. Occasionally things will just fall into the right places when you least expect it and everything does exactly what it's supposed to. Voila! Mwah. Whew. Dodged that bullet! Now, on to the next one.


(We will not talk about the huge backlog of photos from Japan that are behaving like the aforementioned space-suck...)