12 Rigs of Christmas: Day 1: Betts Drilling Rig 1

6 12 2014

Got a rig hand on your Christmas list and you have no clue what to buy them?

How about a gorgeous wall print of their favorite rig? Over the past several years, I have photographed most of the locally owned rigs in southeast Saskatchewan, including rigs from Betts Drilling, Red Dog Drilling, Panther Drilling, Stampede Drilling and Vortex Drilling. There’s even an occasional Savannah, CanElson and Precision, too!

Until Dec. 8, there is a 15% coupon on all Betts Drilling prints. This includes Rig 1, 2, 3 and 4. Enter Coupon Code: Betts

I was reminded today that you can indeed order prints off my website, perfect for delivery for Christmas.They can be printed as gallery wrap canvases, metal prints, or even on coffee cups. The turnaround for almost all these orders in 1-3 business days. Allow for shipping from California, where the lab is located, so I wouldn’t wait to order after Dec. 16 or so, otherwise you’re taking your chances.

In that vein, I am presenting the 12 rigs of Christmas. First up: Betts Drilling Rig 1, which was photographed on its first hole near Northgate, Sask. Just click here to be taken to the gallery. To order find a picture just right for you, click here.

But don’t wait for your particular rig to come up. They can all be found here.

Merry Christmas!

Betts_Rig1-2564_65_66_67_68_69_70


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Categories : Canvas, Commercial Photography

Biggest canvases yet

4 07 2014


 

It’s taken a lot longer than I had planned, but I was finally able to deliver the two largest canvases I have produced to date. Originally this was going to be one 8 foot by 2 foot canvas, but I eventually ended up making two 8 foot by 3 foot canvases, one highlighting Panther Drilling’s four rigs, and the second highlighting the men and the work that they do.

 

I had done several concepts a long time ago, but they weren’t so sure about them, and honestly, that was probably a good thing, because revisiting the whole project from a blank page ended up in a much better product.

The rig canvas was the biggest challenge – the four rigs were shot over the fall, before the snow, and winter, with entirely different lighting and weather conditions. How could I make it all work?

Finally I came up with the idea of one side being the fall, and then transitioning to winter. Rig 4, on the left, would provide much of the working material, and then Rig 3 and 2 would be painstakingly cut out and pasted onto the blue sky. Since I had to do Rig 3 twice, it ended up being about 10 hours of editing. That included going pixel by pixel through every wire and brace on the derrick, cutting away the white sky that it was shot against.

All of these photos figured prominently in the Panther album I did in time for the 2013 Weyburn Oil Show.

The canvases were a challenge to stretch, which has me strongly leaning towards a specialized 120 inch stretching machine in the near future.

Delivery meant using the ENTIRE back of my recently acquired Ford Expedition, with all the seats folded flat. I had built a special crate for such deliveries, but the SUV worked out well.

Printing canvases of this size turned out to be a proof-of-concept for another, even bigger, project I am working on. Details should be out in the coming months.

Panther was very patient in waiting for the delivery of these pieces, and they look amazing in their recently re-finished office.

As Panther’s office manager Nikki said, “It looks like a drilling company office now.”


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Categories : Canvas, Commercial Photography, Fine Art Prints

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