Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

35W Bridge construction truck dumps a pile. But what is that?

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

So how did I get those pictures of the 35W replacement bridge construction? Was I flying over the Mississippi River? Nope, there’s another bridge right next to it. The city was wise enough to create a pedestrian lane on that bridge to allow gawkers like me and my friend Matt, also known as Ravsitar, the release pixie of Tips From the Top Floor Photography Podcast.

Yes, that’s fellow Nikonian Matt taking a shot with a Nikon 70-300mm VR — looks good on him eh? Let’s all encourage this newly-minted professional engineer to reward himself with one of his own, or at least a lens I want that I can use when he’s got mine.

If you are interested in learning more about the bridge, I found a Minnesota DOT information sheet online.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

Here’s what the St. Anthony Bridge segments look like before they install them. Note the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in the background (home of the Minnesota Twins & Vikings) behind the Valspar paint company.

How would you move something this big & heavy half a mile? Check it out…

Look closely, a segment is actually hanging from the Shuttle lift.
Speaking of looking closely…

Here’s a 500mm telephoto of the side of the segments, you can see how they interlock.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow’s daily photos of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities.

He takes a moment to rest and enjoy the view. What’s he working on?

Behold the business end of the St. Anthony Bridge construction. What’s the view like? You tell me.

Is that the coolest job or what?

Technical note, remember the 500mm mirror lens I was playing with? The first two photos were taken with it’s replacement, the Tamron 200-500mm f5/6.3. It’s an ungodly monstrosity to work with, but I’m very happy with the images! I still have a guilty desire to go buy back the mirror lens though. In spite of the wacky bokeh, the images were really clear & the lens was light. There are some really cheap ones out there, maybe…

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

Cranes are great photo subjects, not only do you get a good vertical, but they are usually very colorful. This one serves as the focal point and since it was hemmed in by the barricades, I thought a nice claustrophobic composition would help, so I cut off the horizon and kept the framing close. I’m impressed that they managed to carve out a worksite in the middle of the street like this. The little orange cones add some dynamism as well, they are like little soldiers standing guard around the crane. The thin ones are scouts and the big ones are the bodyguards.

Minneapolis Photographer Mitch Rossow presents daily photos of Minneapolis. Cityscapes, People & Perspectives: Mitch explains composition and techniques.

Danger – confined space, enter by permit only

Had a visitor in my neighborhood today. I’ve already professed my fondness for gunpowder, but hydraulic anything is pretty neat too.

I spent some time a while back watching a tower crane assembled and I finally get how they add sections to make them taller; but now I have another crane mystery. How do these things work? I know how hydraulics work, but these big telescoping booms make my head itch. I know there’s not one big hydraulic ram inside the boom, that won’t work. They have to be integrated into the sections somehow. Where are the rams and lines and what do they look like? What’s pushing against what? If you know of a good cut-away illustration, please link to it as a comment, I need to know this.

I asked the guy working on it and he started explaining hydraulics. After trying to explain my question I felt like I was asking a squirrel about how a tree gets water up from the roots and he keeps showing me the acorns. Besides, I didn’t want to pester a guy with ten-pound wrench in his hand working a crane that probably costs $500 and hour.

Back to the picture: what did I do here? I centered the subject because I wanted to show the weight of the tackle — you don’t get to see this end of a crane much either. By centering an image, it makes it a little jarring, which is bad for nature & people, but it makes sense here.

This crane has seen some use. The industrial scuffed-up nature influenced me to give it a “direct positive” look: that’s the torqued-out contrast and saturation. I think it reminds me of Legos, so the color processing goes with the giant-toy appeal of the crane. I took it a step further and gave you a larger image than I usually do as well to add to the effect I’m going for. I’m trying to recreate for you the experience I had when I wandered out for my walk and found this massive machine jammed into my narrow little street & hemmed in by trees.

I hope you’ve been inspired to get some serious work done this Friday. Hop up into that big gear and crank — ’cause tomorrow’s Saturday!