Jan 102011
 

Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a good friend of mine, Chuck Lundgren of Iris Software, on the Freeport Regional Water Authority project.  As the end of the contract approached he asked me to create a 3D animation of the intake facility and adjoining pipeline segments.  Always glad to tackle a 3D challenge, I modeled and rendered the intake facility and the several twists and turns of  miles of pipeline that connects the Sacramento river to the Folsom South Canal .

The model of the building was provided to me in a CAD file which needed several days of “fixing” to make everything render correctly. I built everything else from scratch basing much of the layout on a simple Google satellite map. I used Lightwave 9.6 for both the modeling and rendering. Of course, there was the occasional trip to After Effects for integration with some of the 2D mapping elements.

< /p>

Apr 082010
 

For the past several years, I’ve been working under contract providing both photography and videography for one of the country’s largest water infrastructure projects. The Freeport Water Authority is a joint agency that has been coordinating the development and construction of an intake facility and pipeline that will provide both the greater Sacramento area and East Bay Municipal Water District customers with new access to fresh water from the Sacramento River.

Today was the ribbon cutting and grand opening featuring speeches from local, state and national dignitaries. In fact, if anyone was counting I think there were about 14 speakers. Yes, this was a big deal and the media coverage was impressive. I haven’t been in a news gaggle like this since my reporting days in the ’80s.

Brian Peterson
Brian Peterson(wearing watch) shooting news event
Jun 172009
 

Solar arrays continue to pop up throughout the Northstate. I was commissioned to shoot a series of images for Chico Electric and Mitsubishi Electric today of two new arrays on the Butte College campus.  This campus is now the most solarized community college in the state.

petersonphoto_090617_0892

As the panels below are mounted on an angled scaffolding that is already about 8-feet off the ground, this shot required the use of my 21-foot camera crane to get an angle that showed off the project.

Butte College water treatment facility solar array
Butte College water treatment facility solar array
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
May 262009
 

During the past couple of weeks I had the pleasure to again work in news with ex-colleague and friend, Debbie Cobb from Action News here in Chico. I produced a short three part news series from the footage I’ve acquired during the past 18 months documenting solar installations here in Northern California, the main one, of which was the record-setting rooftop array installed at the Sierra Nevada Brewery by Chico Electric. The first part aired tonight and the following two nights will feature parts two and three.

Jul 312008
 

I’ve been following the solar array installation at the Sierra Nevada Brewery since it began in October of 2007 for inclusion in a documentary on solar energy in the north state. When completed, the rooftop array will be the largest privately owned array on a commercial facility in the country. This morning, solar panels were being installed on one of the few remaining roofs that still are not making power. But the crews from Chico Electric, the contractor installing the record-setting array, get going before sunrise. So that meant it was up at 4:40 this morning to load both photo and video equipment, get down to Chico, and bum a lift up to the tall roof by 6:00am.  The smell of hops while watching the sun come up over the Sierra Nevada mountains is an experience I won’t soon forget.

Solar Sunrise
Solar Sunrise
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]