Receiving Station S and Distributing Station 21
If you live in the central San Fernando Valley, chances are, this is your substation! These co-located facilities receive at 230,000 volts from Receiving Station E over in Toluca and step it down for distribution to Van Nuys and the surrounding areas. The whole place hums and crackles; sometimes a klaxon sounds in the distance. It kinda gives me the creeps while being frickin’ sick and awesome. At night, the Holophane luminaires throughout the station provide for a marked understatement of the unquestionable power passing through the equipment that they so modestly illuminate.
By the light of an artificial moon
Another from that roll of T-MAX P3200. Shooting at night is really fun because the whole city starts to look theatrically lit. You get all kinds of shadows and patterns and gradients showing up like you would on stage, albeit unintentionally. Still, every light was placed with purpose, even if utilitarian; there’s an art in that if you want to see it.
The carwash by my house at night
Man I love carwashes. Especially when you go through and they have the tri-color foam that you can smell through the air conditioner. And all the different types of spinning and swinging brushes thundering upon your vehicular cocoon from all directions. Finished off by an absolute gale of a drying sequence. I opened my window for that once and it was far more intense than anticipated. A feast for the senses. Step aside, carnival ride!
-Kodak T-MAX P3200
-Pentax K1000 SE
-SMC Pentax-M 50mm f/2.0
There’s a comet in the sky! Go look to the western horizon shortly after sunset and you’ll see it.
@historichighways and I went to the desert to get some pictures of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. The stars out there are crazy. Although it is somewhat visible through city light pollution, you might need to head to a darker area with a clear view west. I recommend a hilltop or beach, if a desert is inconvenient.
See a scene of summer’s sea,
Such starlit skies!
Soon southward flies the starling:
Settl’ing sodden by storm,
Well-trodden, nigh warm in her nest,
This test yet messed her best dress up: wet,
Set a-steam in sunbeams,
Sheer streams seem to seep from its seams.
(To be recited with a lisp and gusto)
Let’s head to the living room for “Remembrance,” by Archibald Joyce (1909)!
I first heard this rather haunting piece on an album from the Separate Orchestra of the USSR Ministry of Defense fittingly titled “Old Waltzes.” BIG fan of that one. Stick around for miscellaneous knowledge about a niche early-20th-century composer I like, a fun fact relating to the Titanic, and ˚✧₊⁎culture⁎⁺˳✧༚
An infrared portrait à la Aerochrome taken by @historichighways atop Echo Mountain with downtown Los Angeles in the background. The remaining traction cable and gears of the nearby, once-extant funicular railway can be seen in the second frame.
‘Twas not so long ago. 🎄
I found a bunch of old photos of this place on Foursquare and Yelp. Luckily, a few contained similar subjects to the ones I took, so I cropped them to match in composition. Here’s a cool side-by-side. I wonder what all those people are up to now, after having stopped at a Foster’s in 2012.
