Mid-Summer Dreams

Mechanicville Hydro


It's been pretty hot and relatively dry. I just came in from watering the area in the backyard where I reburied the gutter drain a couple of weeks ago - still waiting for the seed to germinate. A lot of the area has had a lot of rain, but it's been very localized, and in our little pocked we haven't seen much water.

Went to the Engineer's Luncheon today at the Queen. It was nice the see the guys again, although the news about Fred was distressing. It was also nice to chat with Ron again, and catch up on what is happening in the office. Yes, I left at the right time!

We have been staying pretty close to home the last week or so. Took a little drive on the 4th - up through the Battlefield and into Schuylerville, and then back to the Waterfront for lunch. I went out looking for pictures on Friday with no success - just read the editorial in the latest Lenswork in which Brooks Jensen notes that it is better to anticipate the location, and go there seeking images, than it is to just ride around looking for locations. How true.

I was able to spend some time printing over the weekend. The negativs from Mechanicville Hydro are good, as are the negatives of the pool at the Ashland Holiday Inn. Also made a nice print of the shadows on the side of the Yarmouth boathose.

This morning I mailed off the CD with my submissions for the Albany Underground Artists show at the Institute of History and Art. Keeping my fingers crossed about that one. This weekend I will submit my entry for the SCAC Saratoga Inside-Out show.

This image is the better of the two from Mechanicville Hydro. That's a really neat project - and I have a lot of respect for what Albany Engineering is doing in rehabilitating and operating that plant. It's been in continuous operation since 1987, and is the oldest continuously-operating hydroelectric plant in North America. And technically, its really neat - designed by Steinmetz as a 38 Hz facility, and later speeded up to 40 Hz for parallel operation with another plant at Spier Falls. Still operates at 40 Hz through a couple of frequency changers. One thing I noticed was how quiet the plant is - the generators must be perfectly balanced to be able to spin at 720 r/min and produce essentially no sound. Of course, the freq changers make up for the silence of the main generators.