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Industrial desolation

Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Industrial landscapes interest me a lot, especially when they seem to be as desolate as in these.



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Jarmo Juntunen

Jarmo Juntunen

Well-known member
Hi Cem, first of all nice to see you're back! I trust you're well.
Yes, scenes like these are fascinating. There is something terrifying in a modern industrial environment. They seem so... completely free of any human touch. Or any need of human touch, for that matter. Your processing brought this thought to my mind.
 
Jerome Marot

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Cem, these pictures are exceptional. Is that what took you so long to come back?

Are these scanned? There are some marks in the sky of #4.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Jerome Marot said:
Cem, these pictures are exceptional. Is that what took you so long to come back?

Are these scanned? There are some marks in the sky of #4.
Click to expand...
Thanks Jerome, that is really appreciated. There are many reasons why it took so long to come back such as, among others, taking a good look at my photography and how and why I take photographs. You could call it coming to terms with it. It took a long time and I went through some rough patches such as changing camera systems twice in just 6 months. But I am confident enough now again to rejoin our community and contribute in a positive way.

The pictures are not scanned. The marks in the 4th one is the wet snow (sleet) coming down. It is not very easy to identify in the web-sized version. I have also added film grain in the post processing to create a more traditional BW look.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Jarmo Juntunen said:
Hi Cem, first of all nice to see you're back! I trust you're well.
Yes, scenes like these are fascinating. There is something terrifying in a modern industrial environment. They seem so... completely free of any human touch. Or any need of human touch, for that matter. Your processing brought this thought to my mind.
Click to expand...
Cheers Jarmo, I am glad to hear your thoughts on these. I am well, thanks. I hope so are you all!

Tom Robbins said:
I like them all Cem, but the second one really carries a wallop. Well done!
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It is nice to be chatting with you again Tom. The 2nd one is indeed a powerful image, even if I say so myself.
 
Jerome Marot

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Cem_Usakligil said:
Thanks Jerome, that is really appreciated. There are many reasons why it took so long to come back such as, among others, taking a good look at my photography and how and why I take photographs. You could call it coming to terms with it. It took a long time and I went through some rough patches such as changing camera systems twice in just 6 months. But I am confident enough now again to rejoin our community and contribute in a positive way.
Click to expand...

Don't tell me about changing camera systems and post these images to this thread instead. And if you need prints, I would be delighted to oblige.
 
Asher Kelman

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Cem,

There's great majesty in these industrial spaces. Yes, they's be welcome, as Jerome implies, in our developing exhibition. You've managed to transform each to something demanding of attention. Did you use SNS HDR before converting to B&W?

asher
 
M

Maggie Terlecki

Moderator
Cem, as usual, I'm always mesmerized by your images. You take something as simple and bland as industrial areas and turn them in to dramatic scenes which stop us in our tracks and make us think about our life and times and the environment in which we both work and live. You have a magic touch to take something stark, void of people and be able to give it strength, mood, depth and a bit of angst. I think it is called vision. I, personally think that you are such a fine artistic photographer and it bewilders me to think you could have possibly lost sight of that. Good to know you have retrieved your mojo.
Thanks for sharing.
Maggie
 
Tom dinning

Tom dinning

Registrant*
They're OK I suppose. The camera helped a lot, being a Nikon. Now that I think of it, did you blot out any people to get the shots human free? Just seems a bit strange you and the fine and beautiful Hanny were the only people on the planet that day. And the place is so clean! No beer cans or cigarette butts.
It is good to see you here, Cem. I need you when the going gets tough. You're the only person here who appreciates my humour. Nothing has changed much. They're still a bit sensitive about colourful language and religion and they love chopping up people's pictures.
I would never do such a thing as you know - although the first shot has 4 trees in it and it could have done with just 3 - FenShui and all.
 
Murray Foote

Murray Foote

Member
Welcome back, Cem. Some great images there. I thought I particularly liked the second one when I got to it but some of the others are probably just as strong.
 
Doug Kerr

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Cem,

First, so glad to see you here on the forum again.

These are fabulous images.

On the one shot I was surprised to see the very US-style tank cars, and most surprising the marking GATX, very familiar in the US.

GATX Corporation was originally General American Transportation Corporation, and the reporting mark for their rail cars was GATX, the "X" meaning that the car did not belong to the railroad itself (but rather, in this case, to General American Transportation) but was leased to the railroad by the owner. General American would then make it available to the shipper of the goods.

The railroad would charge the actual shipper of the goods for hauling the goods (in the "railroad's car", although they had gotten it by leasing it) but would pay General American for the use of the car.

One object of all this was that the cars that were used were of special designs that could most safely transport the actual shipper's goods, cars the railroad would not care to invest in itself.

The reporting mark "GATX" became so familiar on American railroads that the company eventually adopted it as its corporate name.

Hope you are doing well.

Best regards,

Doug
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Asher Kelman said:
Cem,

There's great majesty in these industrial spaces. Yes, they's be welcome, as Jerome implies, in our developing exhibition. You've managed to transform each to something demanding of attention. Did you use SNS HDR before converting to B&W?

asher
Click to expand...
Hi Asher, thanks for the kind words. I did not use SNS-HDR on these, although I could have done so. In this case, it was the Nik ColorEfex filters. If I want to print these large, however, I will possibly rework the post processing at which point SNS-HDR might come into play
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Maggie Terlecki said:
Cem, as usual, I'm always mesmerized by your images. You take something as simple and bland as industrial areas and turn them in to dramatic scenes which stop us in our tracks and make us think about our life and times and the environment in which we both work and live. You have a magic touch to take something stark, void of people and be able to give it strength, mood, depth and a bit of angst. I think it is called vision. I, personally think that you are such a fine artistic photographer and it bewilders me to think you could have possibly lost sight of that. Good to know you have retrieved your mojo.
Thanks for sharing.
Maggie
Click to expand...
Hi Maggie, long time no hear. I hope that you are doing fine? I really appreciate your kind words and I think that you believe more in me as an artist than I do believe in myself, lol. Losing sight of what one can do is possibly a common trait in many artists. When our daughter was a baby we have read a book about the development of babies. Basically it stated that the children's growth happens in spurts, just before which there is a decline period. In that period, the child is gearing itself up to start using the newly acquired skills. Perhaps it is also like that for grown ups, who knows? The fact is, my "apathy" in photography in the past year did not mean that I wasn't involved with photography, on the contrary! In no small scale thanks to my mate Tom and friends like yourself.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Tom dinning said:
They're OK I suppose. The camera helped a lot, being a Nikon. Now that I think of it, did you blot out any people to get the shots human free? Just seems a bit strange you and the fine and beautiful Hanny were the only people on the planet that day. And the place is so clean! No beer cans or cigarette butts.
It is good to see you here, Cem. I need you when the going gets tough. You're the only person here who appreciates my humour. Nothing has changed much. They're still a bit sensitive about colourful language and religion and they love chopping up people's pictures.
I would never do such a thing as you know - although the first shot has 4 trees in it and it could have done with just 3 - FenShui and all.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they may be OK Tom, who knows? Or terrible at the same time. The silent majority who don't comment possibly think that they are awful pictures. In the past I would have cared about such things. Now it is only the sharing of what I saw and captured which matters. The rest is moot. Unless of course I hadn't used a Nikon camera, in which case they would go to the trash bin directly.

I saw that you were having all that fun here without me so eventually I had to butt in, didn't I? Don't worry, I will cover your back. But who will cover mine? I used to hate the fact that we talk about religion and politics here. Now I take it as a given which I may ignore at will. After all, we all have our own idiosyncrasies. Although "teaching" others how their pictures could have been "better" still gets my hairs ruffled. I mean, why can't we take a picture as presented as a given and comment on what we see without having to chop it into pieces or adding the presumably missing adjacent parts to the picture? Just tell the photographer what you see and how it moves you (if at all) and let the photographer decide whether he/she has then achieved his/her goals or not. We should learn looking at pictures and forget about our own prejudices and habits. It is not us who took the picture, why the heck should we be telling the photographer to crop this or to change that? Go take your own pictures instead and share them here with us!

I did not do any cloning in the pictures to remove people or any other picture elements although I did remove the occasional dust bunnies. My lovely Hanny has wisely let me go out on my own so I was actually the only human in the area on that day. It has helped of course that it was a Sunday and the weather was horrible. And regarding the cleanliness of the place, I would think that it is a contradiction in terms, lol.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Murray Foote said:
Welcome back, Cem. Some great images there. I thought I particularly liked the second one when I got to it but some of the others are probably just as strong.
Click to expand...
Hi Murray. Even though I haven't commented much recently, I have been following your blog and enjoying the pictures. I really think that you are doing a great job in not only showing the pictures but also telling the stories behind them. Everybody: spend some time looking at Murray's blog and you will see what I mean.
 
Cem_Usakligil

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Doug Kerr said:
Hi, Cem,

First, so glad to see you here on the forum again.

These are fabulous images.

On the one shot I was surprised to see the very US-style tank cars, and most surprising the marking GATX, very familiar in the US.

GATX Corporation was originally General American Transportation Corporation, and the reporting mark for their rail cars was GATX, the "X" meaning that the car did not belong to the railroad itself (but rather, in this case, to General American Transportation) but was leased to the railroad by the owner. General American would then make it available to the shipper of the goods.

The railroad would charge the actual shipper of the goods for hauling the goods (in the "railroad's car", although they had gotten it by leasing it) but would pay General American for the use of the car.

One object of all this was that the cars that were used were of special designs that could most safely transport the actual shipper's goods, cars the railroad would not care to invest in itself.

The reporting mark "GATX" became so familiar on American railroads that the company eventually adopted it as its corporate name.

Hope you are doing well.

Best regards,

Doug
Click to expand...
Dear Doug,

I have missed you a lot my friend, glad to be back so that we can continue from where we've left. Are you enjoying your new life and new home in Alamogordo? I hope you do. And I hope that your lovely Carla is being as socially active as she was back in Texas.

Great info on the GATX cars. I did not know that, but of course we have you to help us out on such areas of obscure knowledge. This image is of the BASF plant in Antwerp, Belgium. I can't guess how the GATX cars have ended up here.
 
M

Michael Nagel

Well-known member
Cem,

nice to see you back!

I am with Tom on number two.

But - gear, it is just gear - don't put too much weight on it. I has to do what you want, but it is your eye that counts...
You know my take on gear and maybe it is a little bit harsher than what I just wrote...

Welcome back!

Best regards,
Michael
 
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