Men At Work, Empire Marina

While I double check my preparations for this evening's workshop I'll show you some of the photographs I got while awaiting word from the Coast Guard about cleanup operations Monday. These are all at the Empire Marina.

This guy's driving a Bobcat for DRC Emergency Services. Looks like he's done it before.

Views From The Marinas

Early Monday morning my wife and I set out on another shoot for my wife's media relations client, DRC Emergency Services, to continue to document with video and still photos their work to clean up oil. Monday's efforts were curtailed by the Coast Guard announcement that no one would go out until all the boats involved had been issued a new bar code. This, I was told, was necessary to keep track of just who was working and who was being paid. It's such a massive effort that we could understand the need for tedious record keeping. What we didn't understand was that this hadn't been done over the weekend when all the boats were idle.

Some work was done as we awaited word on the day's plans. A tug drags a barge loaded with vehicles out of the Empire marina as a crewman on the Miss Raven watches me shoot.

Quick Click From Buras

While waiting to shoot the boats going back out to fight the oil today we had plenty of time to talk to some of the workers. The boats never made it out because they had to all line up and get bar codes BUT we learned of a strange sight in Buras.

The guy told us to look for an ice box in a tree. We found a double door refrigerator.

Yet Another New Wave In Photography

I guess it's because so many people are accustomed to framing their photographs through the LCD on the back of the camera now or maybe it's just the need/want for smaller cameras that do more things. Whatever; it looks like we'll be seeing more EVIL cameras soon. That's right. I said EVIL cameras. They're cameras produced by a front company that's really working for the Devil. Actually the acronym stands for Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens. This one is the Olympus PEN E-PL1.

It's A Dolphin. I'm Sure.

Here's one of the cool creatures I encountered on my trip down the Mississippi last week.

I had a polite disagreement with the sound man in our crew who thought this was a porpoise. It's an old and continuing discussion but I looked it up.

Working The Oil Gush

Because I always find it interesting to see how other people's work days compare to mine I'll show a few shots of my trip from Cypress Cove Marine, in Venice, down river to some oil clean-up sites. This was on a shoot last week to document a client's activities for mainly internal use.

People and boats wait at the marina before heading out to their morning assignments.

Something About That Lighthouse

While heading down South Pass toward the Gulf of Mexico last Thursday in a speed boat I saw this lighthouse. It's near some barges where workers are unloading their booms after bringing them in from various sites.