Big Industry Photography- Louisiana Edition - 23 photos

Like good southerners they immediately offered to help with a big ole smile. They had no idea really what was about to happen.

That shot was so epic. The IT department is locked, even to security. We tried to buy off the computer guys to come in way early but apparently a payoff from a photographer to an IT director is either way out of a comfort zone, or immaterial, depending on who you ask.

They ended up agreeing to come in one night (no bribe accepted, not even a fancy coffee from starbucks) and then we get this weak sunset. And, the motion detector in the men's bathroom on the first floor is apparently really short because one of the little windows was totally black and is now completely CG. That shot literally took us a week.

This was our attempt to get by without all the lights turned on inside, but, while pretty cool, not really publication quality. The prior shot was the do over for that.

We had a lot of time on our hands.

Any given morning one gets to choose to either set up inside or outside. Doing both is impossible when strobes are involved.

The conference room section of the post.

These couple were shot into the sun.

This next one was shot with the camera back to the sun. It was super early am, that was the architect (blurred out) on set for his first photo shoot, at least with us, I think probably ever. He totally was into it for like 15 minutes, realized he was no value to setting up lights, then we just stood there. Normally we shoot pictures with the phone of architects looking at their's. He was so bored. And up so early. He split after an hour and never came back.

Daytime photography. I honestly think its the hardest part.

Its so easy to get really dark blacks and really blown out whites. But sometimes that's kinda moody and sorta works.

I wasn't square to the world on either of these shots, and I never got them the same again. Stupid camera fouls. I have no excuse and should have been better. This awareness and acceptance is the difference between self employed and government folk.

To get the contract we had to agree that we wouldn't publish photographs of their machined pieces without their prior consent. But that machine shop was unbelievable. It was sooo big. I made this one really low res and I don't think there are any parts visible. I gotta post one. The boxes are some kind of metal lathe that make unions for oil patch stuff. It all seemed very precise.

I think storage is okay.

The spooky chapel. Apparently the chapel was a big part of the budget and the owner of the industry (yeah, one dude) said it was staying in. They spent a ton on that. Evidence of the faith that is still found down south. That it wasn't particular to any one religion, its also a testament of the tolerance they have for one another.

These are for the engineers. They seem to love elevations shot through aspherical glass.

Big site means the overall is from way back. They bought these for a contest they wanted to enter, then didn't win the contest. Turns out that almost no one wins in their first year. But it clearly generates a taste for architectural photography. Because after that, they had a better idea of what they want, and also, how to plan a photographer into the project.