Long-exposure shots of beautiful old machines
John sez, "My next-door neighbor Harold Ross takes long exposure photos, 'painting' the objects with a fiber-optic wand or a flashlight. He just took some pictures of the Hagley Museum in Delaware. Hagley curates the history of American technology, and these antique, pulley-driven, but still VERY capable machines are just awesome." Link (Thanks, John!)
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It's fascinating looking at old things like this. Great detail.
I love Hagley! We used to take field trips there when I was younger, but it's interesting how much more I appreciate it now. That's a gorgeous set of pictures. They capture so much detail and texture.
Dear Scuba
leave your site with your profile please, using it (or a link to it) as a by-line is a faux pas here. Otherwise we'll be hip deep in them,
Thanks
Really nice images.
The natural patinas on the metal are beautiful- as is the framing and lighting of the devices.
Thanks for the post.
I have taken many a trip to the Hagley museum. It was the first headquarters and manufacturing site for the DuPont company, 200 years ago when all they made was gunpowder.
These are the most beautiful photos I have ever seen of the machine shop. My super amateur pictures always turn out horrible because of the bad lighting in there. Harold Ross must have an in with the guys demonstrating the shop to have taken such great pictures, good for him.
This machine shop originally ran on water power like the rest of the powder mills but was eventually converted to that new fangled steam power. They run all of those pulleys with an electric motor now for demonstrations but I am sure it could be converted back to water. That is why Hagley Mills machine shop is on my apocalypse team. If civilization falls and we need to bootstrap ourselves up to 19th century technology, this machine shop is the place to go. Forget steampunk, this place was waterwheelpunk.
Thanks for the positive comments! This was my first trip to Hagley, and thanks to my friend Diane Mattis for taking me. I don't have an "in" with the with the guys at the shop, but they were more than kind about letting me shoot for a couple of hours. I used a small LED flashlight to paint light onto the machines, as the light in the building is virtually non existent. There is light coming in through the windows, but it does nothing but create lens flare.
The machinery there is amazing, all operational, and all run by water power. I'm a fool for cast iron!
Harold
Beautiful pics.
Being a purple prose hypergraphic with a telepathic link to sci-fi artists, I am sure 100s are already speculating on what steampunk contraptions can be conjured from these images.
EPIC FAIL!
And truly pretty pictures. They remind me of some kind of CG rendering because of the lighting.
Dear Rossstudio
http://www.kinoflo.com/12VDC%20Systems/Kamio/Kamio.htm
or
http://brainerror.net/texts/howto/macroring/
failing that
http://steve.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/hair-on-fire.jpg
Never seen light painting used like this before, only for 'light graffiti' type stuff- I must try this.
UK readers who like machinery like this would do well to visit Cragside in Northumberland. A country retreat built by a monied Victorian arms dealer, it first used water power to operate equipment (lifts, laundry equipment, a rotisserie) via a system of belts, and later hydroelectric power (probably the first in the world) for the new-fangled electric light.
Their Victorian machinery (especially the really early electrical stuff) is absolutely fascinating.