Locations My Road Rig

[A-PeeR]

I survey our power grids for a living. This includes photogrammetry coverage as well as LiDAR. It's a great job, I enjoy doing it and it affords me the opportunity to travel the country. I get to see sights I would never think to visit on my own accord, meet great people and photograph electric poles. Ok, last part isn't to exciting but the rig I use is - 8 Nikon D-850's each with Zeiss 25mm 2.8 Distagon lenses. The rig provides 360 degree coverage of the environment traversed. On a typical day I collect 1 to 2 terabytes of photographic images. Currently upgrading the system to 10 Nikon Z-7's with Zeiss 25mm lenses. Should be hitting the road later in the week.

 

[Jack]

Wow, that’s serious equipment. So what basically you are taking pictures of?

You can showcase equipment here if you’d like:

Equipment

Show off your equipment here.

macroderie.com

 

[A-PeeR]

Wow, that’s serious equipment. So what basically you are taking pictures of?

You can showcase equipment here if you’d like:

Equipment

Show off your equipment here.

macroderie.com

I survey the power lines and poles for electric providers. They need to see the condition of the poles and measure the sag in the wires to schedule maintenance.

 

[Jack]

I survey the power lines and poles for electric providers. They need to see the condition of the poles and measure the sag in the wires to schedule maintenance.

That's must an interesting job. Quick question, these lenses attached to the camera, are they covered in foil? Or other type of material. Or are they some special lenses for the job.

 

[A-PeeR]

That's must an interesting job. Quick question, these lenses attached to the camera, are they covered in foil? Or other type of material. Or are they some special lenses for the job.

Hi Jack - It's foil tape, it's used to lock the focus ring in place. These are manual focus lens and if we don't tape them in place the focus rings move when you drive over bumps...

 

[Jack]

Hi Jack - It's foil tape, it's used to lock the focus ring in place. These are manual focus lens and if we don't tape them in place the focus rings move when you drive over bumps...

Alright, now I got you. But then you still have to change the focus ?

 

[A-PeeR]

Alright, now I got you. But then you still have to change the focus ?

Nah, just set focus to infinity that takes care of everything from a meter out. We don't drive that close to the infrastructure ;-)

 

[Jack]

So everything is set to the standard. How you are taking images? remote control?

 

[Jack]

Nah, I have folders with raw files I use to create the stacks

So basically your are taking images manually then ?

 

[A-PeeR]

Basically yes, aperture, and shutter speed are defined and we roll with auto ISO to adjust for variances in illumination. Have to manually set aperture for Depth of Field and keep shutter speed constant to account for the speed of the truck....