Pylon the pressure

On a walk with a friend on a lovely sunny day we came across a large electricity pylon.  The appearance of pylons divides people, but whether you like them or not it’s worth looking up and seeing if there are any images to be found.

The sun was shining through the glass insulators on the pylon.   I used a couple of stops of negative Exposure Compensation to try and keep the highlight detail in the insulators, and this had the bonus effect of darkening the very blue sky.  It was worth waiting till a small cloud had moved away so it was a plain blue background.

Sidebar: there is a huge amount of interest in glass insulators and folks all over the world collect them.  Who knew?

Looking up pylons from directly underneath is worthwhile to get pattern images.  It’s fascinating to see the difference the lighting makes.  Here the direct sun means the lighting on the four main supports ranges from flat on, side-lighting and full back lighting.  The square crop and black & white conversion simplifies the image.

As well as going for the bigger picture the details of these structures can also be interesting.  It’s clear that not too much care went into getting a super smooth paint finish on the pylon.  Just one painted cross-support diagonally placed against that sky gives a simple texture image.

Pylons aren’t as ugly or as much blots on the landscape as some might say.  Go and find one, they are pretty easy to spot!