Thursday, August 6, 2009

My Town shoot Out - Power

This week's theme is courtesy of ME!! Power - where do you get your power? Is it electric, hydroelectric, solar, wind, natural gas? The things that power our towns or it could be things that empower you personally, or places to go to regroup, regenerate your own personal power. I encourage you to go and see everyone's contributions here! Because I was the theme picker, I decided to go out and shoot all new photos for this week. All are DOOC, and not even cropped, and most were taken on one afternoon/evening while driving all of my favorite back roads nearby.

You can find power of the electric kind in my town - sometimes it is flying high above:Sometimes it is in an unassuming building:If you are thinking - holy crap, is that what I think it is?Then the answer is yes. Yes, this is a nuclear reactor, and it is on a back road near my town. I encourage you to read more about it here. The urban legend when I was growing up is that GE kept a herd of cows grazing on site that had been surgically altered to include a metal screw out plug connected to a stomach, so that scientists could remove the contents of the stomach and test it for radioactivity.The next two shots are of the windmills of the Altamont Pass Wind Farm. I shot these while in Livermore (which also houses Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory). I would have shot pictures of the lab, but they call the cops on you when you try.
I found this odd array at 8826 Manning Rd, and cannot find out what it is, though it is across from a power company transitions station...The next two shots are of my local power company's golf ball.OK, it isn't REALLY a golf ball, but that is what we called it when we were young. It is actually a Lightning Test center, and was featured in Mythbusters in 2005. I can remember thinking that I FINALLY knew what went on in the golf ball! The description from the annotated episode:
It is a huge dome containing its own power generators. It can generate 700,000 volts at 500,000 watts, but even that is still much below actual lightning: "We can't even come close to what mother Nature can generate"
One interesting statistic they quoted at the facility as a rule of thumb is that 10,000 volts = 1cm of air travel.And under the heading of Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, I saw these and couldn't resist!
I can't wait to see everyone's towns and interpretations of the theme! Oh, and one of the ways I recharge is to drive the back roads around town!

27 comments:

Sarah Lulu said...

Such a great topic that you chose.

I really like the look of those windfarms! I've never seen one for real.

A nuclear reactor! I don't want to be so close to one of those.

Great work.

Sara Diana said...

Hi, great subject, really got me thinking. I have posted my photos, hope you like them.

~JarieLyn~ said...

I think you chose a really great subject. Your photos are really good. I like the shot of the thing that looks like a sattelite dish and also the shot of the nuclear reactor.

I love driving back roads too.

Cynthia L. H. said...

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PURE brilliance!!!!!
:^) ;^) ;^) ;^) ;^)
LOVE it!

Scriptor Senex said...

You did your topic real justice there! Well done.

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

Super power shots! Those windmills are my favorites!

Kathryn Magendie said...

Great topic! I need to get mind uploaded - since I stay reclused in my cove on the mountain, usually my photos reflect that in the "our town" part of it - however, soon, I want to get out and snap some photos of Maggie Valley: my town in Haywood County. A very nice little smoky mountain town *smiling*

Anonymous said...

Wow. Nuclear reactor... now that's power! Not sure I'd feel comfortable living so close to one, but then they say all the time how safe they are...
And those windmills! They are so beautiful! We only have one around here... all on it's lonesome. Sometimes I swear it's just to placate the environmentalists so the council can say 'hey, look, we're doing something'... but then, maybe I'm a tad cynical. hehee.

Beautiful and interesting photos, well done. And thank you for picking such a great theme this week.
Thanks for sharing :)

Anonymous said...

The shot of the windmills of the Altamont Pass Wind Farm are great. I hope we will see more windmills dotting our US landscape soon.

aurbie said...

That nuclear reactor looks so innocent.

I so wish we had windmills. We live on the bay. There is enough wind here to power half the US and we are tied to an electric company with really high rates. That's power!

Love all of your photos, J9. You did a great job both picking and executing the assignment.

RedLan said...

Thanks for hosting this week's shoot out theme. I like the photo of windmills so much. Until next Friday!

Kerri said...

I just love the wind turbines. We have some in Southern Alberta. You never realize the size of them until you are actually standing right beside one. They are amazing.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I love that line of 'windmills' on the hill.

You did a beautiful job with your assignment, now I see where you got your inspiration from.

:)

Sarah Sullivan said...

This was such a great topic!! I had to give it a lot of thought and it has been fun to see what it meant to everyone else! Love all of your shots - especially the cow story - LOL Wonderful!! Sarah

kate sweeten said...

I like all of the variations in the power that you've shown. Very creative :)

Unknown said...

Love the power shot of the windmills. Thanks for the interesting theme this week!

gigi said...

Thanks for a great theme! I loved all you shots but really love the wind farms.

kent.. said...

Thanks for the inspirational theme! I've got windmills on my shootout page too. And going through the list of shooters there have been a number of windmills featured. It's a good omen I think. Contrasting that with the nuclear power plant is quite nice. If only nuclear plants didn't generate such a terrible amount of radioactive waste. But the reality is they're safe, but dirty. Nice photo tour!

Si's blog said...

Power corrupts - wish I had thought of that one.

Great pictures. You make me wish I could get somem pictures up.

Sherri said...

This was a great theme suggestion and I enjoyed participating. Love your shots...especially the wind generators.

Heather S-G said...

LOL!! What a great topic...and so open to interpretation :D You're shots are all very power-full...love the last two, tee hee.

Jama said...

I enjoyed looking at your Power's photos!

I've never seen a nuclear reactor before, it's sure is an eye opener.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

I like that row of wind farm. What a lot of power they must generate. Not everyone likes wind farm. They complain they ruin the outlook of the place.

Thanks for a good topic, and easy one to challenge. Great Choice Ka Pai aka good job in New Zealand Maori.

Melissa said...

neat!

Unknown said...

love your shots of power and the story of the cow's stomachs. too funny!! great post as always.

Carrie said...

I really like the first shot of the windmills against the blue sky with the brown land. Cool colors.

GingerV said...

you did very well with Power - I love the windmills on the hills, seem sort of close together but may be the angle. I posted the first 12 gang members.