THE ATMOSPHERE WAS A BIT CHILLY…

I believe I have mentioned the heart-breaking soul-numbing mind-bending cold we’ve been experiencing here. These shots were taken this morning before noon. I am back in the house now and have no intention of leaving again until Wednesday morning when I have to (gasp!) go to work. (Weather note: temps with wind chill are expected to hit nearly -50 F after midnight tonight.)

The tower you see in this picture is the Pulliam Plant with the Tower Drive Bridge (now open to traffic!) in front.

More on the Pulliam Plant in upcoming posts. I really went out today with the determination to get some good shots at that site, and I think I may have succeeded.

But then I got caught up in chasing smokestacks. The next shots are from a paper mill and a cement company.

Nothing says Arctic Blast like the vast acreage of  steam around mills and power plants.

PULLIAM PLANT

This is the Pulliam Power Plant site, located at the mouth of the Fox River in Green Bay. You can dress this one up–and, trust me–I gave it my best shot, but it is impossible to make it sing. The matter was complicated the day I took these by the thick gray haze that hung over the city like a supersaturated cotton ball. All the shots I took were gray and grainy, filtered by that dense wet air. Zero sunshine, of course.

I did the photographer’s version of putting lipstick on this first picture: all the colors were pumped as far as they could go.

The results were still not making my heart dance, so I went with diversion as my next technique. A slice ‘o plant is…interesting, right?

Ultimately, this last once proved to be my favorite. Viewed through the barbed wire, we can abandon the pretext that this is a lovely colorful site and give it all the “grim” props it deserves.

If you want to locate yourself with respect to the At the Mouth of the Fox post from a week ago, it’s pretty easy. I am standing on the east side of the Fox River. To my left are the local Coast Guard station and Tower Drive Bridge. Directly in front of me on the west side of the river is the Pulliam Plant. To my right are the bright pink structures from that post.

UNDER THE BRIDGE II: FACING WEST

Behold the Mighty Fox!

Last post was from an eastern-facing position, my back to the river.

Turning around brings us to:

I’m pretty sure that if Edward Hopper hung around in Green Bay under the Mason Street Bridge, this is how  he would paint the scene.

Maybe the old guy I scared away earlier was channeling Edward Hopper’s ghost. Or maybe that was Dennis Hopper’s ghost.

(And you can prove me wrong how?)

Technical aside: On the three pictures above, I have adjusted both exposure and saturation in order to get more pleasing results. Right now the Fox is an astoundingly brilliant shade of bright green and I tried to dull that as much as possible. Nothing else was changed.

Finally, on a completely nonartistic note, I offer what would appear to be one of the sacred pyramids of Green Bay, located on the west bank of the Fox River and also visible from the same under-bridge spot. The ancient Egyptians built their pyramids and buried their dead on the west side of the Nile because that is where the sun died each evening.  Ancient Green Baynians believed that coal was far more beautiful than…oh, let’s say boardwalks and cafes and funky little shops,so they built huge mountains of coal on the west bank of their main river.

 

In the interests of full disclosure, I will say that I buffed out the various and sundry wires that destroyed the whole sacred mountain illusion. The cloud and the bird just showed up and volunteered for the event. My thanks to both of them.