Every now and then I’m lucky enough to get a commission that really appeals to the 7 year old boy that is deep within the psyche of all adult men.  The sort of excitement that is aroused by miles and miles of pipes and dials and shiny metal and flashing lights, not to forget the machine that goes “ping”.

And so I found myself being commissioned by a very nice Parisien agency to shoot some documentary work around a huge gas-fired power station in Teesside which has been recently acquired by French power giant Gaz de France Suez.  The brief was to take a tour of the site accompanied by a couple of engineers and shoot the environment, sights and sounds of the plant in which they worked.

Easier said than done.  First the safety regulations inside power stations are very thorough. They are there so we don’t all die.  This is a hugely dangerous environment in which to work.   So I was given a safety induction and kitted out with blue flameproof overalls helmet goggles, ear defenders and sturdy boots.  Shooting was not going to be easy wearing that gear (I’ve done this sort of thing before!) and thankfully no images (I’m aware of anyway) exist of me kitted out as when I did catch reflection of myself the word that sprang to mind was “dork”

We set off on foot round the plant and it was every bit as impressive if not more so than I’d seen from afar.  Miles and miles of shiny metal pipework that randomly vented jets of steam, lights, dials and other technical bits and bobs flashed and whirred around us.  As we progressed further towards the giant turbines inside the heart of the plant it was like being in the middle of a James Bond set.  Amazing.

Communicating with the engineers to set up the shots was mostly undertaken using hand signals, gestures and general “mime” as the noise precluded any meaningful way of audibly communicating.  I did have to shout in a couple of ears once but don’t tell anyone.

Setting up the shots as we traveled round I became really aware of how important and how much we take for granted audible cues in our day to day existence.  We can hear a car coming, we can hear fire, machinery, steam etc.  Many times to get the angle I wanted I needed to set up in the middle of a roadway and although I had people watching my back it was still very unnerving.

Another safety element was the need to check for any signs of gas before shooting using flash.  One of the engineers had a meter that he would raise in the air and check that it was safe to use flash in that particular part of the plant. As if I wasn’t nervous enough already…

The weather was incredibly good to us and as the day progressed the sun came out through thin cloud but in a nice diffused way.  Just right for shooting the acres of chromed and silver steel pipework on display as it gave some lovely modeling to the images but didn’t cause loads of uncontrollable specular reflections.  Would have needed a couple of truckloads of dulling spray for that…. We climbed up and up  a very small  iron staircase right to the very top of the turbine gantry which afforded us a wonderful view of the adjacent turbine chimney stack and a panoramic view of Teesside itself.

I made the shot below that is my favourite from the day.  It doesn’t look like it but the wind was howling a gale and it was really hard keep everything still for the exposure!

Finally, we shot some more of the engineers working at various points in the plant and called it a wrap.  A very enjoyable day in an highly dangerous environment that yielded some great images due to good planning and a very helpful marketing team (thanks Jackie G).  The Parisien agency reported the client was delighted with the images.

You can see a larger version of the turbine image in the “structures” gallery on my website portfolio.

Until later…

J