We took some of my prairie family on a little boat trip out to see the sea lions, (pictures of those are coming), that winter in Nanaimo near the Harmac Pulp Mill. On the way we saw this crew loading a barge with logs from the log booms that were floating in the water. The tug would maneuver logs from the boom so that they were within reach of the crane then the crane operator would hoist them up on to the barge. It was a fascinating operation and I wanted to get an image that would capture as much of the dynamic motion as you can in a still image. Before I got this image I got some pictures of the logs coming up out of the water and the water rushing off of them but we weren’t in the right position to get the tug in the frame as well. I maneuvered around and waited for the next lift. These tugs dip and dive in the water, heeling over very steeply and I was rewarded with this tug turning sharply to maneuver just as the logs came up out of the water. The image tells whole story and the movement of the machines is accentuated by the dynamic slash of orange (1.) that cuts across the frame from bottom left corner to upper right. The other payoff is that you can see both the tug and crane operators (2.). I was very happy with the result.

-Russell Berg