Just thought I'd take another break from the b&w. This is a close-up shot taken in the press reel room at the Seattle Times. The belts move to help bring the new roll up to speed to match the running speed of the press. Moments later the paster is made (the end of the old roll and the beginning of the new roll are "pasted" together allowing the press to continue running without stopping). -=>Donald

What a neat shot, Don! [Hope PC sees this.] Whoever designed the color scheme had a real sense of design. In school we always used these machines as examples of really difficult control problems. Several ton roll, turning really fast, can't let the paper tear, moment of inertia changing as the paper gets used up and the roll gets smaller, needing constant linear feed as the circumference changes. Very elegant, and you've made a fitting image.

Neat shot is right!! This is cool. Its so monitone then the blues are so rich at the same time. cool! Magick Michael

at first glance i thought it was a set of Hot-Wheels toys or something going down a ramp... i need glasses, better cash in on the health plan at school soon.. honestly, the vividness of the rollers (the blue especially) along with the roll of paper, mainly the texture of the side of the roll, is marvelous. Perhaps slightly accentuating (typo?) it a bit? I dunno, just a thought. Digging the stone-like texture on the blue rollers. Two lines (non parallel) and two curves in this that stand out and compliment eachother nicely.

there's a strange light pattern on the roll that I just noticed. Kinda like a fading "v" of light exposure or something. Not saying it's bad or anything, but mayps without it ? Just another thought.

Cool shot. Did you increase the saturation to get the vivid blue, or is it natural?

Nope..color is natural. Only thing done to the shot was color correct and sharpen to account for scanner blur. The stone like texture on the dancer arm is from paper dust. To give a little bit more perspective as to how big these are, the roll it is spinning up is 54" long, about 50" in diameter, weighs 2700 pounds and is a little more than 11 miles long. Will have to see if I have a shot of the robots we use to move these rolls around. -=>Donald

Do you work at the times? Great shot by the way.

nplus - Yea...Systems Engineer at the press facility; although that's kind of a misleading job title. We deal with all the standard SE stuff (computers, networks, software, etc.), but also with industrial electronics, spread spectrum radio comm, robotics, remote laser imaging, film and plate processing systems, press job control, etc.

heh! got any good job leads? Working as a large format (engineering plots, etc.) scanning tech right now....boring pain in the azz.

Neat!!! Love that blue. The composition is head on. And interesting backgrounder, too. :-) Thanks, Don. (*

I couldn't resist. [Me bad!] My friend, Shirl, mailed me this of her cat on the same day Don first posted his extrordinary paper roll photo. I immediately knew I HAD to post this, but (politely) waited until Don received all his praise first.