Around 1 p.m. on May 25, this video hit a quarter million views in the seven months since it was posted. It is still getting about 800 views per day. It has been very popular in the United States, Germany and Poland, in addition to Canada.
Interestingly, in many of the countries where it has been watched, 100 per cent of the viewship was male. That includes Poland, France, UK, Brazil, Denmark, Ukraine, Czechia, Romania, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, Latvia and India.
The comments are interesting, because it gets a lot of comparisons to Farm Simulator.
I haven’t posted on here for quite a while because I was swamped with a few massive projects. This video, the additional videos in the series, and the photography accompanying it, was one of those reasons.
While it continues to do great, it has a ways to go to catch up to the related snow clearing video, which is closing in on 600,000 views. Viewership on it has been worldwide, but dropped off quite a bit when the summer came. It’s still getting 310 views per day. On Oct. 21, 2017, it had 54,302 views in one day, which totally blew me away.
Thanks again to Jason and Sherrill LeBlanc for bringing me in to do this.
I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Vortex Drilling Ltd. This was the very first drilling rig I ever photographed commercially, outside the paper. It was brand new, on its first hole, for a brand new company. The weather in June was absolutely spectacular. I’ve only had a few days of doing this sort of photography when the weather cooperated so well.
The album this photoshoot produced set the bar for everything to follow over the next several years. It was the model for how I’ve shot all other rigs since. Usually that entails a full day out on the rig, crawling all over, taking pictures of every little detail. I stayed until sunset and got some spectacular shots, two of which ended up on my business cards and also as canvases in the lobbies of local hotels. Keep your eye out for them and you might see one of these, seen below.
I haven’t had the opportunity to shoot Rigs 2 or 3 yet (someone asked the other day if I’d come out to his rig). Maybe some day.
For the next three days (Dec. 2-4) I am running a sale: 15% off all Vortex Drilling prints. Expires Dec. 4, 2015. (Discount does not include shipping). You can order canvases, metal prints (which are AWESOME, I just ordered one for a client) or even a coffee mug. The coupon code is: Vortex
Do you have a rig you’d like me to profile in my 12 days of Christmas? Put your requests in the comments on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to share.
Today is Cyber Monday! So for today only (ending midnight) I am offering 25% discount on all prints on my site Zinchuk.ca . This is the best discount I am offering all year. It is only for prints ordered through the website. This includes canvases, metal prints and conventional paper prints. Taxes and shipping are not included in the discount. The coupon code is : cyber
If you’re looking for more rigs, check out the master drilling gallery here.
For the next four days (Nov. 30-Dec. 3) I am running a sale: 15% off all Panther Drilling prints. This includes Rigs 1, 2, 3 and 4. (Discount does not include shipping). You can order normal photo prints, canvases, metal prints (which are AWESOME) or even a coffee mug. The coupon code is: Panther
Do you have a rig you’d like me to profile in my 12 days of Christmas? Put your requests in the comments on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to share, and scroll down to see the other Rigs of Christmas. If you recognize any of your buddies, please share.
On the fifth day of Christmas, the toolpush gave to me… Stampede Drilling Rig 3.
Stampede Rig 3 was working close to the U.S. border at the time. Indeed, I think it has spent most of its career drilling withing a few miles of Mackenzie Meats, which made for a good snack when I was out there.
I believe Stampede 3 is the newest rig in the Saskatchewan drilling fleet at this time.
While some of the other rigs you may have seen before, this is the first time I have put photos of Stampede Rig 3 out “in the wild.” There are some really good sunset shots. Also, I went out an extra day to get photos of Stampede 2 and 3 working close enough together that you could get both in the same photo. It’s rare to have two rigs from the same company working so close to each other.
For the video slideshow I had to pick a country song for Bill and Jackie, the crew that runs Stampede in Estevan.
If you’re looking for more rigs, check out the master drilling gallery here.
For the next three days (Nov. 29-Dec. 2) I am running a sale: 15% off all Stampede Drilling prints. This includes Rigs 1, 2 and 3. (Discount does not include shipping). You can order normal photo prints, canvases, metal prints (which are AWESOME) or even a coffee mug. The coupon code is: Stampede
Do you have a rig you’d like me to profile in my 12 days of Christmas? Put your requests in the comments on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to share, and scroll down to see the other Rigs of Christmas. If you recognize any of your buddies, please share.
On the fourth day of Christmas, the toolpush gave to me… Panther Drilling Rig 2.
This rig was working really close to the U.S. border at the time. The pictures with the numerous pumpjacks are significant. That’s because that one rig, Panther Rig 2, punched all those holes.
The Panther Drilling Rig 2 gallery can be found here.
If you’re looking for more rigs, check out the master drilling gallery here.
For the next three days (Nov. 28-Dec. 1) I am running a sale: 15% off all Panther Drilling prints. This includes Rigs 1, 3 and 4. (Discount does not include shipping). You can order normal photo prints, canvases, metal prints (which are AWESOME) or even a coffee mug. The coupon code is: Panther
Do you have a rig you’d like me to profile in my 12 days of Christmas? Put your requests in the comments on my Facebook page. Don’t forget to share, and scroll down to see the other Rigs of Christmas. If you recognize any of your buddies, please share.
A few months ago I got a call from a long-time client. “Brian, come out to the shop. We got something you want to take a look at.”
Okay, this was interesting. I had done photos for the Gilliss family several times. I made a video for Gilliss Oil Tools and did still photos for the patriach, Dean Gilliss, a while back. I spent the better part of a year getting photos in -52 C windchill and +29 C summer to get photos for Gilliss Casing Services, which the sons Dylan and Logan (and their buddy, Wally) took over and now own and operate. So what could this be?
“Can you take pictures of Dad’s DeLorean?” Logan asked.
Which had me react something like this:
I think the actual words were something like, “You have a DeLorean? Here? In Estevan???”
Sure enough, they had a DeLorean, taken out of storage. Dean wanted me to take some nice photos of it to list it on eBay, after having owned it for many years but not really having done much with it.
Now, this is like asking a photographer to take photos of a supermodel with their cellphone and say, “Okay, good enough.” Not gonna happen. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. And I wanted a chance to drive the car.
I actually remember seeing the car on the Price is Right when I was 6-year-old. Here’s the clip. Go to 1:11.
It was spring time, the ground was brown, there was nothing green or nice around.
“Let’s wait until things green up,” I suggested. Very well, that’s what we would do.
Dr. Emmett Brown: “The way I see it, if you’re gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some *style?*”
Before we would take the photos, the car would need to go in for a good detailing, to be taken care of by Dean’s good friend in town. He would look after the car.
I tracked down a DVD from HMV of Back to the Future, and watched it three times to psych myself up for this shoot. I also watched several hours of documentaries about the car, the company, and its founder/designer, John DeLorean.
The gull wing doors, rear-mount engine and stainless steel body make this one of the most distinctive cars of all time, and that was before the movie made it cool.
The car was made in Northern Ireland during the worst time of “The Troubles.” It was only in production for 21 months, over three model years. Total production was 8,583. It’s body is made of stainless steel, long before all of our kitchen appliances were.
That number is very close to the mileage on this particular car – 8,593, the miles on the odometer when it was in my garage. (Note I said miles, not kilometres. This was built for American consumption).
Then I had to find somewhere to photograph this car. It’s been the driest spring and summer in recent memory. Where would we find someplace nice and green?
Then I remembered that the Gilliss clan has supported the local TS&M Woodlawn Golf Course for many years, so I called them up and they were kind enough to let us bring the car out there.
That photo shoot ended up being very abbreviated because I had a story for the newspaper I had to cover that morning (which I thought started at 1 p.m.) We would have to get together another day to finish the rest. The car went back in a garage.
A little later the car was dropped off at my place, where, with the help of my wife, I had set up a 30 foot backdrop allowing for interior shots with my new massive strobe umbrellas for soft, even lighting. But first we ran out a few blocks to the newest piece of pavement I could find, a newly-constructed but empty bay just behind the hospital. During this evening shoot we had one guy on a motorbike and two guys in a pickup pull up, get out and stare in awe at this car while they took pictures with their cellphones. My patient wife and kids fed the mosquitoes and helped out, too.
The kids were thrilled to get to sit in it for a bit. It was worth the mosquito bites.
This was a full out, use every technique I could think of shoot. I’m talking 5-shot brackets, high-dynamic range editing, wireless flash triggering around and inside the car, compositing flames from a flare picture I took several years ago, the works.
Back at home, I was up till 1 a.m. fussing over the detail shots in the garage.
The next morning, it was another two hours of taking the last set of photos for the eBay listing, showing all the details car auctions need.
Sorry, no flux capacitor
Does it go 88 miles per hour? If you want to know, put in a bid on eBay and find out.
All told, 1,886 photos, 13 video clips (to be edited later), three shooting locations, three days, and editing until 4 a.m. But it was worth it. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. When the eBay listing is posted, I will post it here. Check it out.
If you liked my 12 Rigs of Christmas, hopefully you will like this. It’s a nice little video slideshow of some of my commercial photography work in 2014. Happy New Year!
On the 12th day of Christmas, the toolpush gave to me, 12 different drilling rigs.
I had a hare time figuring out how to wrap this up with so I decided to pluck some from my travels, where I will stop on the side of the road and get a shot, as well as some other miscellaneous projects in various stages of completion. In this collection you will find:
One Alliance, one Panther, one Advance, one Stampede, one Savanna, three Nabors, three CanElson, and rig one we found in the foothills just as the sun was going to start going down. I have no recollection of what it was. It was orange, near Rocky Mountain House or Drayton Valley. Either way it had a nice fence.
See if you can figure out which is which, and put the company (and maybe rig number) in the comments under each picture.
Several of these pictures have found there way onto walls in the form of large canvases. Two are in Western Star Inns & Suites lobbies and one is in the mayor of Estevan’s office. If one of them catches your eye for a print, let me know via personal message or email brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net.
I hope everyone enjoyed this little project. I hope do do it again next year, but a little earlier, before the printing lab deadline.
If you haven’t had a chance to see all the 12 Rigs of Christmas, you can see them on the Brian Zinchuk Publishing Facebook page or my website at www.zinchuk.ca.
Merry Christmas to all the riggers, and to all the company men, a good night.
Metro would do his big finish to his 11 Days of Christmas, singing about 11 pounds of chisneck (you know, garlic!) With that in mind, this rig is based in the perogy belt of Yorkton. I grew up in Yorkton, my family is still there, and I was surprised as hell that a drilling rig company would end up being based there.
So, for the 11th day of Christmas, my toolpush gave to me, Crusader Drilling Rig 2!
And in John Deere Green (and yellow) no less!
Crusader is a project I am in the midst of. I got some of these pictures last summer near Stoughton on my way back from news shoot. This rig spent a lot of time drowning in water that summer. They got enough water in June or so to make a duck happy, but not much else.
I never got so many ticks in my life as I did this evening standing beside the road for just a few minutes.
There are a few pictures of Crusader 2 here. I hope to get some shots of Rig 3 working in the foothills later this winter.
If anyone would like prints, please message me through Facebook.
I asked for requests for the last of the 12 Rigs of Christmas. It’s been a smashing success, and I hope to do it again next Christmas. We’ll hopefully see some services rigs. I am humbled by all the kind comments. Thank you.
So far I’ve had one request for Panther 2, but that’s it. (A loving mom hoped to see her son. If that’s you sonny, your mommy loves you!) If you haven’t seen your rig from Panther, Betts, Stampede or Red Dog, speak up in the comments on my Facebook page and put in a request.
Today is Cyber Monday! So for today only (ending midnight) I am offering 25% discount on all prints on my site 
Brian Zinchuk Publishing 