This is the Mountain Consolidation Mine, yet another abandoned mine in Butte, Montana. (see my postcard entry). I posted this photo on a Butte photography forum and got this reply from "coach Mike":
"I remember being in that Mountain Con hoist room.
It was Christmas Eve.
Ted Cavanaugh was the hoisting engineer during one of his 40 years raising and lowering untold thousands (of people)into the depths. Yes, even on Christmas Eve.
The miners waiting to board the chippy cage went from 40 degrees below zero to 90 degrees in a matter of minutes.
The bells would pierce your eardrums, not the silver bells playing on the LP records in the nearby East Center street homes, but the bells from the station that were code for what depth the miners wanted to be lowered to.
Then the giant drums would roll, unleashing thousands and thousands of feet of thick, oily cable that held the life of the miners dropping into the earth a mile straight down."
Creul, isn't it?
Enough of the history lesson. I burned the white building on the right (hidden behind the gallow frame), and also the parts of buildings on the left corner. Used selective levels, sharpened, cropped, saved for web and added just a bit of saturation for the web.
I got really lucky with the lighting! The clouds were dark blue and the sun was setting. I was driving and pulled over on the side of the road and took about 4 shots before the lighting change. The first three were overexposed.
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Beautiful image. Isn't it amazing how the light makes or breaks a picture. You timed this one just right. And darned nice score, as well. In any 'normal' contest, you would be far closer to the front page!
Wow, I'm glad you used that title, if not I probably would've done the 15 second check it out & vote. (which would've been a high vote anyway, but wanted to leave a comment)
Great colors here, & full of emotion. Great shot
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