What I did on my winter vacation !

Posted by Fred (Easton PA, United States) on 12 April 2007 in Miscellaneous and Portfolio.

Actually it was quite the opposite, I've been laid off since Nov 1 but during that time there was a shut down at the Hercules Cement mill in Stockertown PA.

Since I was one of the members of our local union with the required training to work here I was called out for the short term job. It wasn't fun at all. At the end of the day my co-workers and I would blow off the cement dust from each other with high pressure air lines and still leave the joint looking like Al Jolson .

But hey, the pay was good. So whats wrong with coughing up chunks of cement and alittle blood as long as you can make that next mortgage payment ?

Comments (5)

Daroru from Osaka, Japan

Good grief Fred! What a story. Colour saturation gives an interesting surreal look to your shot.

12 Apr 2007 11:52am

@Daroru: Thanks, happy to hear you liked the story and the photo .

Jen from Jessup, United States

That does not sound like fun at all Fred!
Great shot...framing is excellent!

12 Apr 2007 12:09pm

@Jen: The work wasn't fun but payday was !
Thanks for the compliment .

Carol from Istanbul, Turkey

I like this shot both cos I like industrial landscape and cos, again, your story gives it meaning. You bring to mind "another day older and deeper in debt". It's shit what they do to us ain't it?

14 Apr 2007 5:17pm

@Carol: I can say that I certainly wouldn't choose a full time job at this place. Here like many other mills in the area they worry more about production then safety. I had to take a course in mine safety to be eligible for the short term employment here and I can honestly say that it was useless.

The bottom line is production and if you take the time to do things without risk your out the door. It's funny how things work, when the safety inspector is not around your instructed to do what needs to be done, but if you get hurt your remind about the course . This is all just to get around liability and beating the system.

In any case the pay was good even though the health risk was high, that's just how it is.

Sidonie from Sydney, Australia

From ground to the tower tip - that's a massive range - amazing how you've got it all in - it's important doco value to capture the BIG things in the urban scape as examples of how they diminish us physically and destroy our souls!

15 Apr 2007 4:29am

Amr Tahtawi from cairo, Egypt

WOW...i realy got caught in ur comment here... and the shot is thought provoking....well done my friend

17 Jul 2007 12:15am

Add your comment ...

next day →

Canon EOS 30D
1/500 second
F/16.0
ISO 1600
28 mm