| (Editor's note: One
of the strangest requests I have ever received was from this company. After
being in this journal for nearly 5 years, they have asked to have their
name removed from our site. Go figure?)
March 24, 1998
Part one of two
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Tick...Tick...Tick...Okay class...Today's lesson is entitled "101
Ways to photograph a welder..."
Some days, this is how I feel folks. Since leaving my career as
a photojournalist, I have both received and given an education in
digital imaging and photography- particularly in industrial photography.
It's been, at times, boring work while at other times I've been
astounded by what I've seen. I get up daily and look forward to
going to work. I think that I'm pretty lucky to be in a job that
I love, a lot of people can't say that. |
(Image deleted by company request)
I use colored gels when shooting welders as an added degree of
protection and to add some color to the scene. |
| (Image deleted by company request)
One of the more interesting parts of my work is meeting those
who work in the "field"- getting to see them work helps
me understand the entire company much better. |
My employer, (Name deleted by company request) Construction, Inc. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama does
heavy industrial construction. Our target industries are Pulp/Paper
Mills, Automotive Plants, Petrochemical, Chemical Process Plants,
Power Plants and basically any other kind of heavy construction. (Name deleted by company request)
is also a fabricator- meaning, they make piping, pressure vessels,
process modules and sheetmetal items. Our fabrication shop, at 125,000
square feet is one of the largest such facilities in the Southeastern
United States. We are also renting equipment now, which is a fairly
new program. (Name deleted by company request) does work literally around the world and many
of our customers are "Fortune 500" companies. |
(Name deleted by company request) hired me a year and a half ago to improve their imaging process
and to get some Public Relations type materials to their customers. They
have, in my opinion, wisely decided to invest in technology such as 3-D
animation and state-of-the-art CAD programs. All to enhance the vision
that our customers have for their projects.
| Still, it has been a learning experience for both me and my employer.
I had to go to a paper mill in south Alabama a few months back to
shoot some images of work that we had completed there. The Vice President/General
Manager of (Name deleted by company request), (Name deleted by company
request), introduced me to the field engineer by saying "This
is Mark Lent- he doesn't know shit about construction, but he shoots
a great picture...show him around..." Such is life in
the construction industry. I am learning more every day though and
they too are learning more about shooting a good picture and putting
your best bart forward for the customer. I'm proud to say too that
the imaging we have done has come a long way in that year and a half.
When I started here, we didn't even have a computer that was capable
of doing the things that I need a computer to do. We have slowly built
up an arsenal of equipment and software that rivals that of even our
biggest competitors. My vision is to have a program that has the highest
level of excellence attainable. If you can dream it, I want to be
able to show you a visual image of that dream- in any format you desire,
be that DVD, Video tape, CD-ROM, Web pages, still photographs or a
full-blown multimedia package- clear and simple. |
(Image deleted by company request)
A paper machine at one of the Paper Mills that (Name deleted
by company request) does work for. This particular one was installed
by (Name deleted by company request) in world record time- (Name
deleted by company request) has installed a paper machine faster
than any other contractor.(Image deleted by company request)
One on the items about my job that I really like is the freedom
that I have to design. This graphic was done in Photoshop and will
be featured in the (Name deleted by company request) web site |
| (Image deleted by company request)
Sometimes, you see something and the color just screams at you-
this was one of those moments.
(Image deleted by company request) |
To do all of this imaging takes a great deal of know-how and
an even larger amount of money. Still the benefits can be substantial
for both customer and our company. In 3-D animations, you can literally
walk through a building before it's even broke ground. This is important
because it allows everyone to see what the structure will look like
and more importantly will illustrate flaws in engineering designs.
Problems can be anticipated and worked around before construction
even starts. This, on a major project, can save hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Plus the fact that assisting a customer in visualizing
their dream is simply good salesmanship.
So, these are the basics to why I do what I do. My background in
newspapers has been to my advantage simply because I know how things
work in the graphic, printed world. I have the "vocabulary"
to talk to a printer (while in college, I too worked as a pressman
at a newspaper) and know what he's talking about and what the issues
of completing my printed job are going to be for him. As
a photographer/sometimes writer I know what a reporter looks for
in a story and can assist them to this end while giving my company
the best public image I can. |
Mark Lent
March 24, 1998
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