Monday, February 07, 2011

Photo - Industrial America

Industrial America

At times my day can be incredibly stressful. I use photography to reduce the stress. For me it’s just like taking a walk. My mind goes blank, I look for the shot I want, and then push the shutter release. Every now and then I produce something I’m proud of.

I waited to post this because I had a problem with the image that took a few weeks to work out. It felt right today because my day was crazy and I need to work on something other than my real life job as a project manager.

I woke early and drove across LA (2.5 hours). I attended two conference calls and a call with my boss during the drive, along with five other short calls. I don’t remember the drive. I met with the management team of a large business for two hours while they asked me a million questions about a project I’m about to deliver for them. I gave a pep talk to my team there, and then drove across LA (1.5 hours) to my office in Carson. While filing my truck with gas I stood looking at this scene pictured above (without my camera). I spent the afternoon prepping for a 3:00 pm meeting that went to 6:00, and then drove another hour through traffic to my mother’s house for a nice visit and to catch up on her visit to my sister. When I finally got home, my brain was fried, but I still felt the need to create. I started working on my take from a few previous photo shoots, made some catch up posts to Flickr and finished this photo. And it’s only Monday.

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I love it
1 reply · active less than 1 minute ago
Great photo. To say it reminds me of a time we have passed as a nation is cliche -- but true.

I have thought about this photo for the last few days, but I'm commenting today because I just read about a Illinois/Wisconsin man, four years from retirement, laid off from his job and now taking a $9,000 class an hour-and-half from home twice a week so he can get the more technically advanced version of his job back. The difference is the pay for his "new" job will start at $12.00 hour and max out at $16 -- after five years.
2 replies · active 743 weeks ago
I have a friend that was in a similar situation, except he didn't want to take the class. He did find another job, but he will have to work 5 years longer than he would have had to at his old job. It would be nice if these places allowed workers to take a class on the weekends to train for the advances in their industry.
In this guys situation, the layoff allowed the company to not spend money on the training, which at less then 10,000, should not be a big deal for most companies to spend on an established employee. More importantly and far more significantly, it allowed the company to re-hire a better trained, well seasoned worker, with updated skills, at a reduced rate of pay under the new pay structure.
blondie_havoc's avatar

blondie_havoc · 743 weeks ago

This reminds me of a very surreal area in Decatur, IL on the highway. Out of nowhere you are driving through the middle of a factory. It's quite an odd site.
If it were not for the flag it would be an eye sore. One should not be able to wrap the flag around a disgrace !

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