I'm so excited to finally be posting this shoot! A few months ago we received an interesting call from one of our clients. She explained that she started working for a new company, a factory, and their first Nacelle was coming off the factory line. She wanted us to come out and take photos to document the important day.
We quickly agreed to do the shoot and right before the phone call ended she said, "Alright, and come a little early so we can get you in your safety gear and strapped into the harness."
me: ".... what exactly is a Nacelle?!"
We were informed that a Nacelle is the 80 ton engine that you you see on top of wind turbines and that I would need to be hoisted up an a scissor lift in order to get the shot!
For those of you that read this blog and know me, this is especially unsettling (funny, if you're Patrick) because I am terribly afraid of heights!
The name of the company is Vestas. It is a Danish company and they just built new, state of the art facility in Brighton, Colorado. You should check out their web site if you're interested in renewable energy, they are doing some amazing things!
When we arrived at the factory, we were greeted by friendly people who quickly dressed us in safety gear (including steel-toed boots) and rushed us to the loading docks. The parking lot was full of about 100 employees and there was so much excitement in the air I could feel it immediately. You could tell that these people had put in a lot of hard work into this product and really believe in what they do.
I finally laid my eyes on the Nacelle. The giant machine was sitting atop a remote-controlled robot that was crawling slowly out of the factory door. It was quite a production.
I didn't have time to watch for very long, I had to get strapped into the harness! At first I was really scared. I remained composed as I stepped into the lift but could only muster a nod of my head when the man asked me if I was afraid of heights. But once I got a little bit off the ground all of my focus went to the photo I was taking and I never thought about it again.
After we were done with the photography we were given a tour of their new facility. I have never been a factory like that before and it was amazing to see how they mass produce 80 ton wind turbine engines.
Since the first shoot with the Nacelle turned out so well, they invited us back last month to photograph a similar event. But this time the company had grown by double! It made it double fun, too. They even had a barbeque and we got lunch!
We are so thrilled to get to work with Vestas. They are a wonderful company and we can't wait to work with them again soon.
