Crossing

It seems that whenever you see the horizon in Pennsylvania, you see hills or mountains. Not a lot of flat land in the interior of the state.

Two more...

Fallingwater

I have always had an interest in architecture, and when you talk about American architecture you need to talk about Frank Lloyd Wright, and when you talk about Wright, you have to talk about Fallingwater, the home he designed and built for the Kaufmann family in rural Pennsylvania. I have long wanted to see it myself and finally had the opportunity this week. As expected, it is a spectacular home in in a spectacular setting.

Although the house is a collection of dozens of interesting visual details and design elements, it is almost exclusively identified by one view... across Bear Creek below the falls. It was my desire to find a unique way to photograph the structure, but in the end the familiar viewpoint is needed to complete the visual experience.

And at night

After dark the Steel Stacks (see earlier post) are lit, this time of year, for Christmas. If you look closely you will see stairways and walkways up into the works, providing a self-led tour of the parts and process of steel making. Unfortunately it was 20F and windy while we visited so I did not attempt the tour.

I shot this as a four exposure series and back home attempted an HDR composite. It was not to my liking. I created a better result by taking the best single exposure and working on local adjustments. I have found the dynamic range of most modern cameras often provides all that is needed, even in difficult exposure situations.

Steel Stacks

Bethlehem Steel ceased operations 1995 and left behind a large industrial site including these blast furnaces. Although there was talk of tearing them down to recover the site, it was eventually decided to leave the stacks as a backdrop for a redevelopment effort. It is now a music, arts and festival site for residents and tourists. The project was in part aided by the approval and development of a casino and hotel on part of the property. It appears to have been a successful transformation despite the sometimes detrimental downside that a casino can bring.

Main Street Bethlehem

No, not "O Little Town of Bethlehem"... this is Bethlehem Pennsylvania, the former home of Bethlehem Steel. Although this is not that Bethlehem it does takes inspiration from the original and is know as Christmas City.

Oil

An oil refinery is not a common site, but it is a facility that we all rely on to power our cars and sometimes heat our homes. I would guess this is a pretty small refinery by industry standards. Located in Warren Pennsylvania it is an independent company known as United Refinery.

Warren is a relatively small town with a long history with oil that started in late 1800's. Numerous wells produced crude here, but it did not last long. Now most of the input for this plant arrives in a pipeline and departs in the familiar gas tanker trucks.

I am amazed at the complexity, and the photo only shows a portion of the plant located on the Allegheny river near the confluence with Conewango Creek.