One of the more difficult pieces of equipment to photograph in action the Shotcrete Sprayer is easily photographed before the nozzle starts projecting it’s contents onto the entire area.
I was underground at Vale’s Coleman Mine just outside of Sudbury Ontario to update their photography for their marketing materials and photo library.
Once the shotcrete sprayer is in operation I have a few seconds to capture the image before the location fills up with particles covering the whole scene in airborn dust. With a slower shutter speed I removed my camp lamp so it would not add any ambient light to my scene which caused a single ray of light to be captured in front of the operator.
My second favorite underground equipment to photograph is the Shotcrete Sprayer. Along the same lines as the Jumbo I think it has to do with all the different angles we can position the machine to create interesting images with leading lines and with different compositions. “It can be a messy job at times.” David laughed as I was photographing his portrait, “but I love it” he said.
