Some days when the phone rings, an unexpected call just works out. That was the case with Pacesetter Directional, a Calgary-based directional drilling company. They were looking for current drilling rig pictures in southeast Saskatchewan, and pictures of their tools in action. As it turns out, they were present on several of the rigs I shot in 2013, in particular, Red Dog Drilling 3 and 4. When I do a rig shoot, it can often take 12 or more hours, because I shoot EVERYTHING. You never know what the client might find useful. In this case, it paid off. The drilling company likely won’t have much use for pictures of the downhole tools that were on the racks, but Pacesetter sure did. I was able to supply them with a number of usable pictures from my existing library of their equipment and people in the field.
What was even more interesting was the fact that I knew one of their field hands from when I was a kid. I was taking pictures on the drill floor of Red Dog 3 last fall when a guy in grey coveralls says, “Brian?”
This is not surprising since I’ve been writing for Pipeline News for going nearly six years now. People see me with a camera all over the place. But then he identified himself as Chris. We went to church together as kids, and his older brother was my age. We spent a lot of time together in our younger days, and now, probably 20 years later, he recognized me. Our moms are still best friends, but we’ve all gone our separate ways. Now here Chris was, a directional hand with Pacesetter, and here I was, taking photos, of him, on a drill floor.
It turns out the pictures I got of him turned out beautifully. The lighting was just perfect, the colours jumped out. It was a perfect day.
Several of those photos can now be found on Pacesetter’s website, which was recently revamped with the library of photos I provided. About 3/4 of the photos I found on their site at this time were mine. Two of these are now part of my canvas print collection for sale, and indeed, I coated them yesterday. They should be mounted Monday.
Plans are to do more work with Pacesetter later this year when time allows.
I love the rocking beat to this video slideshow put together for United Centrifuge. You can check out their new web page at http://www.unitedcentrifuge.ca
Last fall I had the opportunity to photograph United Centrifuge, a Weyburn-based oilfield services company. They specialize in, well, dirt. They remove dirt from drilling mud.
The project was meant to provide material for their newly revamped website, now active, as well as marketing materials. We’re talking pamphlets, trade show displays, albums, the works.
Also part of the project was the virtual tour, which can be found here. It shows every aspect of their primary products, from multiple angles. It also works on an iPad.
This project was one of the most challenging to date and saw almost every tool in the toolbox used. There were high-dynamic range photos taken while on the vibrating mud tank of a drilling rig. If you’ve ever done HDR shots, you know that any movement can destroy the shot. There were numerous 360 panorams, again, taken on vibrating drilling rigs, tanks or centrifuges. For each of these panoramas, approximately 120 photos were taken to create one image. The evening shots had speedlights used as fill-light for centrifuge. The GoPros were suck everywhere imaginable. The virtual tour was by far the most complex I have done to date. The canvas was also one of the largest to date, a 36×48. The only thing not incorporated was aerial work.
The shoot involved visiting three rigs over four days, plus one day in the yard. The final gallery was nearly 1,000 photos which can be seen here. Additionally, they had a album produced which you will be able to see at upcoming oil shows like the Redvers Oil Showcase in May.
This is a virtual tour I recently completed for Trimount Developments. It’s their duplex show home in Estevan’s Dominion Heights.
Click here to be taken to the virtual tour.
Click here to be taken to the gallery.
About once a year or so I get asked to restore an old photo(s). These are typically precious family heirlooms, with only one copy. One was a very large, extremely high resolution 8×20 print. They often have scratches, folds, discoloration, fading, and sometimes even parts (like people’s heads!) missing. In this case the set shown at the beginning of this video were third or fourth generation reproductions, with film negatives or prints only 1.5 inches square. I was able to print them 13×16 for 9×12 canvases. Check out the video. The gallery is here: http://galleries.zinchuk.ca/Retouch/Marg-Neitling/
![IMG_1559[1]](https://blog.zinchuk.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/img_15591.jpg)
Until now, I have been fortunate enough that I have not recently needed the repair side of Nikon Professional Services. This week, that changed, however, and I have found out why it is such a valuable asset to a professional photographer.
Yesterday (Thursday) morning I was taking pictures at a camp for Pipeline News. My D4 camera somehow became loose on its carabiner and fell about 2 feet to the floor, snapping the flash off near the base. “Oh crap, That’s a $500 fix,” I said, noting the price of the flash. The problem was, I have a wedding lined up for this Saturday.
I’m a firm believer in the military maxim “Two is one and one is none.” I have four flashes. But this is the only one that can act as a “master,” controlling the output and triggering of the others in elaborate, advanced off-camera flash setups. It’s been my intention to pick up another master flash, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet since my second master flash decided it only wanted to work as a slave.
What to do, what to do?
First, I phoned Don’s Photo in Regina and got them to set aside a flash for me for Saturday morning as a Plan B, something they were kind enough to do. Then I pulled out my Nikon Professional Service card.
I applied for NPS a couple years ago so that I would be able to get first dibs on the then-upcoming D4 flagship camera. When the D3 came out, it took almost a year before mere mortal, non-NPS members could obtain one. I was one of the first people in Canada, and indeed, the planet, to get the D4, arriving on the second day they were available.
NPS’ main purpose is to support working professional photographers. You have to have multiple professional bodies and lenses to qualify, and you have to submit a body of work, paid work, to become accepted. Essentially, you have to make your living with your camera. I do, both as a professional photographer and newspaper editor/photographer.
A just-slightly-less-than-panicked called to NPS at 1 p.m. Saskatchewan time had them sending me a loaner replacement flash by overnight courier from Ontario. It arrived with 24 hours, as seen above, in time for me to have this crucial piece of kit in my hands before the wedding.
And this is the whole point of this post: a professional not only has a backup for everything, but a backup for the backup. In this case, that second level backup is Nikon Professional Service. It’s there so clients aren’t left hanging. So when you’re hiring a photographer, ask them – do they belong to Nikon Professional Service or Canon Professional Service? If not, you may be taking your chances.
I am in the process of making not one, but two, 8 x 2 foot canvases for some very special clients. Each will hang on the wall of their offices, and will not be missed.
This one is for Betts Drilling, of Carnduff. The shots are from Betts Rig 1, when it was on its first hole.
The first thing was the construction of the frame – a reinforced kiln-dried fir frame that should not warp. You can’t just use cheap spruce and hope for the best.
Next was editing. This print is 100 inches wide – wide enough to wrap around the 96 inch frame. Since it will be close enough for people to walk up to, it was printed at 200 dpi. That necessitated a 20,000 pixel wide image – which is, coincidentally, the largest image Photoshop can handle. (Bet you didn’t know that, did ya?)
The image is a collage of four images. Each had to be upsized, some as much as 320%, to match the resolution of the final output. Even four 12 megapixel photos need a boost when printing this large. They were shot before I got my Nikon D4, which is 16 megapixels. I am now understanding why Nikon put out the 36 megapixel D800. My next camera will have that sort of resolution for exactly this reason.
36 inch wide canvas (29 inches printed) wide coming off the 44 inch Epson 9900 wide-format printer.
Here you see the print coming off the massive, love-seat sized, 360 pound printer in my basement.
After some drying, it was time to apply the laminate.
Spraying not one, but two cans of museum-quality archival laminate onto the canvas in the garage. It sure dries a lot faster in this weather than at Christmas time.
And once again, more drying.
The metre stick provides perspective. This is drying after the archival laminate is applied.
Next step, mounting tomorrow evening.
SAFE!
I only had two grads this year. This is the second. I love the Godfrey family. Wendy was my daughter’s Brownies instructor. Robert’s Number News is amazing journalism for a 15 year old guy who decided to buy a camera one day. Mike coaches football, and they have bought several football photos off me in the past. Finally Jeremy, our grad here, was named Estevan’s male athlete of the year. We had to schedule the shoot during the week because he had a hockey tournament on the weekend. He also plays baseball and football.
At the end of the shoot, I pointed out, “We don’t really have any normal shots.”
Wendy said, “We’re not normal!”
On that note, I had to do a second version of the slide show. Let’s just say it has something to do with what he’s wearing.
You are able to find the full gallery here.
I wonder if I can mount Hellfires on this sucker?
Brian Zinchuk
Brian Zinchuk Publishing 