JWilsonphoto
Registered: Jan 16, 2002
Total Posts: 13870
Country: United States
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 Good Morning Lady Jo,
Actually, the 37 drivers were like seasoned formation pilots. I was over in Gonzalez shooting a salt water injection well facility right before the truck shot. When I arrived in Stockdale they had about 20 of them perfectly aligned, so I climbed to my vantage point, the top of a trailer, and kept an eye on the rest as they rolled in for a shift change.
These trucks run two 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Tire costs alone top $37,000 a month for the fleet. They haul 180 barrels of oil or salt water effluence, depending upon their assignment. There is zero unemployment in South Texas (amongst people who actually want to work), and businesses from small to large are very busy and will be for decades. Tell the shops, hardware stores, food outlets, hotels, gas stations, equipment manufacturing and sales people, clothing stores, and anyone else in business here, that "trickle down" doesn't work. I'd have shot this assignment for free just to have the opportunity to be immersed in a climate of hard work, prosperity, and the perspective of an unlimited bright future. In spite of 16-18 hour days and the physically demanding nature of the assignment, I found myself with a spark of optimism as I drove home in the wee hours. And, no small amount of thankfulness that God brought us to The Lone Star lo those many years ago.
The whole week I was thinking about how many industries I have learned about over the past 32 years of shooting professionally. This week has been a course in petroleum and natural gas production, just fascinating. Yesterday I spent about five hours in a special suit, with an SO2 monitor clipped to me. We were shooting in an environment where concentrated amounts of SO2, a highly lethal by product of oil drilling, was present. They briefed me on the emergency procedures if my monitor were to activate, and what would happen if those procedures weren't followed. Oilfield work makes air to air look like a walk in the park as far as risks, it's more on a par with working on a carrier deck.
I ended up shooting late last night and wrapping that assignment up. That worked out well because a client in Fort Worth had need of me for a rush assignment early this morning, so I bolted home in the middle of the night to be available for that shoot. Working toward a day of downtime/Photoshopping at HQ tomorrow, maybe a little Cub time too.
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z wrote:
