Reconstruction Railworks Hilversum: Working the Tracks @Night ;-)) M@H (many *!)

[Max@Home]

Hi All!

Last Saturdaynight - Sundaymorning I was a guest of Mr. R. Stremme and his welding teams of Dura Vermeer Railinfra BV, a company of Dura Vermeer.

They are a part of the total team renovating the railworks around the Central Station in Hilversum, the Netherlands, their specific job is to weld the new railwaytracks together.

A photo-story:

...the crew assembles in the canteen...



...work scheduling in the open air, waiting for track-clearance, showing 'fresh workclothes' for the pictures ...



...'can I pass the tracks here?' 'in exchange for a pitcha, luv! ...Mr Photographer!!'...



...preparing the gear-carts...



...the new-technique tincans...



...clearing the temporary clamps...



...cutting the tracks for the moulds...







...building the moulds and pre-heating them...





...steal and igniter...



...creating liquid steal...







...demolition of the prefab single-use mould, cutting the fresh weld in shape...





...a little grinding...





...the half-finished weld & a completed one...





...new style tincan and old style melting-pot...



...Thanks to all my 'victims' for their hospitality and kind and patient explanations, and to...



...and...



...of the Communications Department for having me there...

...hope you enjoyed the viewing, I certainly enjoyed the making!

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

(All images taken with Canon EOS 20D and EF-S17-55F2.8 IS & 580ex w/OmniBounce, except for the last portrait, that one w/ 70-200F2.8IS, RAW to JPG with DigitalPhotoProfesional, NeatImage for noise-removal, BreezeBrowser for framing and resizing)

... and for those interested, even more can be seen here ...

[Rense]

Max,
A great series .Was this a paid job?
Could you share details about your setup (lightning, flash etc).

[Mr. Pickles]

Interesting story and a good capture series. Documented well. Guess they don't use super glue.

And what is this share details about your setup business? How's about you share details about Irene?

[jfrancho]

That was great. Nice job.

[Max@Home]

Rense,

This was a 'paid shoot' in so far, that Dura Vermeer (Divisie Infra, the ICT department) is my employer and pays my bread and butter anyway .

About the setup: I used 20D + EF-S 17-55F2.8IS + 580ex (+ CP-E3 batterypack) + Omnibounce as main camera, I had a 350D + 50F1.4 + 430ex on me as backup, and had my bags locked in the canteen nearby with 70-200F2.8IS, 85F1.8, etc, but never needed/wanted them ...

I shot in manual mode, when I wanted the flash to be the main lightsource, played extensively with the bounce-position and FEC, bounce ranged from 90 degrees up when I was closer by to full frontal when I was/needed to be further away (safety precautions and all...)

This was shot at night, but obviously the work-area was brightly lit with strong halogen construction lights, so I could also shoot Av mode and use the flash more as a fill, while using highISO to get as much 'ambient' as possible, this I used for shooting the fire-streaks in the 'grinding' and 'cutting' process.

I did do a lot more chimping with this series, especially the info-histogram was very valuable in determining whether I had 'something' or 'nothing'

...and for those further interested, (almost) all my PBase images contain the full original EXIF

Mr. Pickles,

...about Irene , well, this young lady is a recently started colleague, working for the Communications Department of the Dura Vermeer Groep, the 'holding company' of Dura Vermeer. Her special assignment is promoting the 'communications' of the infrastructure division, I work for Dura Vermeer Divisie Infra, the sub-holding company of that division .

Whenever any company in our division has something 'special' they want reported or just pictures of, she will inform me and then we will see whether it is something I am able to shoot at all and whether it fits the schedule of my other tasks and activities

her portrait I shot recently for our IntraNet site's 'Who-is-Who' book, since due to new laws, the normally scanned and used ID card images make all look like they are on the 'most wanted' list, the only thing missing is the black bar with numbers...

(BTW: how do you like my new blue backdrop ? )

...I hope this satisfies the curious...

JFrancho,

thanks for the encouraging words

...*my* €0.02...

Kindest regards!

Max@Home

[Worm324]

Great series and story You captured every step of the process with a great shot!! Amazing work Max.

Thanks for sharing all the shooting info as well


Jay

[Rense]

Max,
Thanks for explaining the details. I've never seriously considered the EF-S 17-55F2.8IS but now that I have seen your pictures I think I want one to.