The end of the power and the glory by eleanor

The end of the power and the glory

When I first learned the prayer "Our Father" and had been instructed to think about the words, when I came to the line "For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory" ... this was the picture that popped up.

Next Sunday these cooling towers, which are part of the now decommissioned Athlone Power Station in Cape Town, will be imploded because they have become structurally unsound.

I am looking for advice and suggestions from anyone who has photographed an implosion of a building. I know there is no option for a re-take!
Great shot!!
August 11th, 2010  
this is a cool shot!

can't offer any advice, but I am excited to see what your implosion photos look like!

Good luck!
August 11th, 2010  
This is a great shot! I'm not sure what advice to offer either, having never photographed such a thing. If I was doing it, I would scout out different views ahead of time and try to find the right spot to photograph from (preferably a spot where you can be sure you can avoid getting other spectators in the shot). Then I'd get there early and take a number of shots to get the exposure set up right. I would also use a fairly fast shutter speed to stop the action as much as possible, since they'll probably implode very quickly. Once the explosion starts, I'd take as many frames as possible in burst mode if your camera has one. A tripod and remote shutter release would probably be helpful too if you have them. Good luck! I look forward to seeing how they come out.
August 11th, 2010  
Can't wait to see you pictures :-) This one is great!
August 11th, 2010  
wow - impressive shot - stay far away from the implosion, is my advice! :-)
August 11th, 2010  
That would be great if you took a video of the implosion and posted that as your picture.
August 11th, 2010  
Cool shot. Looking forward to seeing what you turn out from the implosion if you choose to shoot it.
August 11th, 2010  
I can remember how people hated these when they first appeared on the landscape, but I've grown to like the shape. Although I'm not in SA, I hope some in the UK are kept for prosperity.
August 11th, 2010  
Ooh, good luck on capturing the implosion. It's always sad when something you've attached meaning to is destroyed.
August 11th, 2010  
Wow, a) if your camera can go continuous, find a good location, change the batteries and push the button and let it go. b) A video camera works nice, if you have the software to grab frames from the video.

Fortunately, when the Seattle Kingdom went down, there were enough sites with webcams, news cams , etc, that you could see the thing go down form above, north, south, in the air and a couple of seconds from a camera inside the Dome that the crew put there, when it came down. One camera was across the street and got the initial explosions until the dust hit.
August 11th, 2010  
This is a wonderful shot. I love the sillohuette and the sky colors.

I have done alot of continous mode shootings at the bike races I have been too. My camera can take 3 pictures per second, but at some point the memory card gets bogged down. I noticed one of my cards is much faster than the others. Also decreasing your picture size in your camera will let you get more pictures before you get hung up waiting for it all to write to your card. I would highly recommend trying some test shoots beforehand by just holding down the button for 30 seconds and see how well your setup reacts.
August 11th, 2010  
I was bummed to hear that the dates had been changed to Aug, as I will be out of Town. Will be looking forward to seeing your pic that day!
August 12th, 2010  
BTW I really like this hazy view.
August 12th, 2010  
Wow! This is amazing!
August 12th, 2010  
looks familiar! lol... nice shot
August 12th, 2010  
Thanks for the suggestions and advice. I don't have a video, so it will have to be a stills option. I'm going to take my camera to the spot I have chosen and test high-speed continuous shots and see how long before the memory card splutters!
August 12th, 2010  
This is a great shot, well done!
Omg, that implosion is going to be epic... will definitely be watching it ;)
August 13th, 2010  
Great photo! have you taken the implosion shot yet? Would love to see that!
November 6th, 2010  
@pvu There was a big drama in that the implosion happened 4 minutes before the scheduled time. Don't ask! It was also raining, and in the rush to uncover my camera which was all set up, I bumped it and all the pictures were slightly out of focus :( But have a look at the ones my friend Glynnis took: http://365project.org/glyn/365/2010-08-22
November 6th, 2010  
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