Excellent shot of the power terminal, and one of the end-users in the distance behind. The lines of these structures always fascinate me, probably because I'm clueless about what the parts are and what they do. I just admire the "art" of them!

OMG, how were you able to get so close to capture so elegantly this geometrically angled riot of rods, ells, beams, cables, pipes, tubes, wires, insulators, plus buildings in the background? Masterfully done, Mark, your artistic eye has definitely come to the fore in all of these industrial photos. Finally, thank you tons for the dedication to myself and the Towers of Power I photograph and constantly seek. They offer so much to marvel at in just the area of POVs alone, and I've taken hundreds of fotos of the metal monuments over the last week. And I'm not done.

Thank goodness for all the ugly plants, bringing power to all the pretty things. CC

calling them a desert is not demeaning to the people that work there , but exploits the dangers they face to make a living. so many around the country and Dallas has been forced to shut down.then the tax payers get saddled with the cost of removing the poisons left by big industry.many children near an old lead smelter here ended up with cancer

Another fabulous capture Mark, and a great dedication to Harry. There was no need for an apology but I do understand why you felt like you needed to. All of us see many things in life through different eyes, but that's a good thing. I was fortunate enough in my youth to see such sites through the eyes of Earle M. Brunson. (the owner of a large corporation, who was truly one of a kind) Mr. Brunson wore overalls and worked in the plant with the regular workers most of the time. He worked until he was 93, as the company was his baby and the workers his family. Even before his passing he made provisions for all of the elderly and handicapped workers to have jobs after he was gone for as long as they desired. So for me at least seeing facilities like this one reminds me as the old saying goes that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. (and love and caring can be found even in places like this if the right person is in charge.

I guess we need these powerlines to run the background cities and though some find them interesting I would rather they were all underground instead of stretching across the countryside and spoiling the views but then that is just me. I like how you have the city in the background of this capture it sort of shows the significence of this power.

Sometimes the industrial grime and rust and functionality has an allure of its own. Not sure if this pic captures it though, seems as if it's trying to compete with the city in that regard.

Splendid image, Mark!!!

belle photo de l'invasion de ces tours et élements métalliques qui envahissent notre environnement.

Many years ago I worked for a foundry supply house. It was a desk job, as was my entire career, but it gave me the opportunity to work with some very smart and interesting people who did heavy industrial work. (Foundaries are about as heavy and industrial as it gets!) I got to tour more than one foundry floor during large pours, and let me tell you, it's pretty exciting! There's a certain smell ... molten metal and hot sand ... that stays with you forever. I can almost smell it now, just thinking about it. When viewed as a whole, as an abstract concept, "industry" is hard to think about in a positive way. It's easy to get stuck on smokestacks and noise and forget what's really happening. An industrial district in a city is a collection of many, many companies, each one providing a service, each one employing people and keeping the economy going. I can complain about mining, for example, but I will not let you take my computer away from me or give up my gold and diamond wedding rings. I want to keep my car, my electric appliances, my indoor plumbing and my double-pane vinyl windows. Those years in the foundry industry gave me an appreciation for the inherant beauty of steam and clanking metal, and of the people who comfortably inhabit that world. This is a wonderful image, full of beauty and contrast. Your text is thought provoking as well as loving and heartfelt. A beautiful post, my friend, in many ways.

No need for that apology, the environment and it's occupants are intertwined but not the same. Another complex pic (and text).

simply beautiful ...photo, words, dedication !

Many of us have a love/hate relationship with technology. We enjoy the leisure & comforts it enables & the gadgets that entertain us & yes, provide the means by which we are able to view this image. But we rightly deplore the pollution & destruction of our environment & the exploitation of workers when that occurs. Our ongoing challenge is to continue to work to maximize the positive aspects & reduce the negative impacts. I appreciate the honesty of your sentiments...

The whole world needs to be reshape....and we can start in our own backyards such as here... Excellent. Aloha

Xcellent a not often seen urban photograph!

Your comments add a certain warmth to these structures that otherwise may not be evident to the eye unacustomed to focusing on this type of urban scenery. This appears to be some sort of power substation...if it goes out so does all the electricity that serves us so magnificently today. Well done Mark...like your heart for this type of shot...a genre I've done very little off. My bots are back...first time since February:)

WOW Mark, As goodoleboy I was at once wondering, how on earth you got the fence so detailed and sharp and the background just as sharp as the fence. I find this to be an awesome capture in all matters.

like your thoughts and a nice Dedi for him too ,excellent captured !!

wonderful shot

great pic.These places are fascinating

Hi, Mark:)Long time i had not the pleasure of being in your gallery:)! I read your text and saw your image.I agree completly with Andrea and i don´t have better words than she used. However,i want to tell what i feel about your image. It is terrific, Mark! Looking the great towers of your city in background and the crudeness of this structures in 1st plan,like they are framing the others,it is like a kind of magic to me. The contrasts that you captured in these complexes metalic,make a connection between them,indeed...and to me,all make sense here...you captured them in its nudity and in its entire purity,and your photo shows exemplarily a development,and,how these huge contrastes make part of an whole!! Plus,Like in an encounter,you captured the complexity,the beauty and the mistery! Yes,you did it! It is one superb and fascinating image and it is a wonderful dedi for Harry.

Power to the people!! You are SO right about industry; we tend to complain and bitch about them, all the while using our phones, tv's, computers, etc those very industries allow us to use. One of those little "things". A great shot of the huge structures it takes to do all this!1

wonderful shot. hope the brown outs is not from here.

outstanding image!

Ah, but these are deserts! Not in the desolate, lifeless, dull, drab sense of the word, but in the real sense of what deserts are! There's a harshness to them that makes people uncomfortable, especially when they're busy NOT thinking about how much of life these places drive. They're far more subtle than they appear, though and there is a harshness that cannot be denied. Deserts ain't for sissies and neither are places like this! It's amazing the amount of psychic and economic "heavy lifting" is required in a place like this, and it's also amazing the life lessons that the people who work in these places can teach you. I liken this sort of "desert" to the fictional desert planet of Arrakis, in Frank Herbert's Dune novels. They possess their own, distinct grace and they make their own specific demands, and what I love about these sorts of places is the fact that they're grungy, grotty, and they're the sorts of places that epitomize dirt under the fingernails, which itself implies hands-on work. That and just look at this! It's gorgeous! It's like the kind of stuff you'd see in...well...a desert. No greenery. No foo-foo fluff, frills, or filligree: just the hard, solid facts of what makes stuff go and what stuff is made out of. I like the fact that the guys who work in these sorts of places aren't the sorts who get pedicures and spend their time in board rooms, discussing advertisement campaigns in the same sort of language that people use when discussing war and who dies and who doesn't. Real work happens in these places and you can always trust what comes out, and that's the main point, I think...and on the other side of that: just look at this place. It's gorgeous! Okay, if you stand to close to this place, the air might feel a wee bit crackly, but WOW! This is amazing! The Science Fiction writer in me is fascinated by this, because you just know that some set designer is looking at this and figuring out how to make the guts of a particular spaceship look! Heck, I'm looking at this, trying to determine the frequency of its particular hum, and whether or not it will make your fillings hot. Probably not. I think I know where you were when you took this, and I gotta say, this place has the most impressive chimney I've seen. In winter, it spews out one of the most impressively gigantic steam clouds you'll ever see in Chicago! I mean, the steam belching out of that puppy has staying power, which pretty much means that I'd have loads of fun drinking beer with the guys and women who make this place go. I love this shot. Yep, I like this. I wanna take a photographic tour of one of these places...or even the sewage reclaimation plant that is not too far from here...I think. Well...it smells like a sewage reclamation plant, which smells like potting soil on steroids; I think it's where they actually process/make potting soil as there are whole fields and fields of black stuff just waiting to go in to a green and white plastic bag emblazoned with the SCOTT'S logo and pictures of pretty flowers growing out of the rich, black, kinda moist "brand new dirt" that probably came from near the electricity-makin' place across the highway.