Neighborhood and power lines

Power lines towering overhead
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2020

I’m still working on my project to document my vinyl-village neighborhood, with an eye toward publishing a book with the photos.

I think this photo will make a perfect cover for the book! It says a great deal about this neighborhood.

High-voltage power lines cut through the neighborhood. I’ve made a lot of photos involving those lines and their towers lately, trying to show how in some parts of this neighborhood they dominate the view.

In other parts of the neighborhood, such as the part I live in, what dominates is the constant drone of vehicles on nearby I-65.

This neighborhood is a middle-class enclave in what is otherwise a wealthy town. These homes sell for well below Zionsville’s median home price. I suppose detractors such as these power lines and the Interstate is part of the reason why.

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Comments

20 responses to “single frame: Power lines towering overhead”

  1. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    Low prices probably due to EMF in the air. I possibly wouldn’t be buying a house that close to the power lines (unless that’s compression from the picture). I’ve seen places where people hold a florescent tube in the air and it glows! Since your body and mind run on electrical energy, no one knows what this would do or the long term effects. Time for your aluminum foil hat!

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      That’s a 50mm lens – no compression. Those power lines really do run right behind that house.

  2. Khürt Williams Avatar

    Hi Jim, to use your phrase,, I too live in a “vinyl-village neighborhood”, except mine is cookie cutter. Documenting my neighbourhood would be like photographing blades of grass. Even the cars, actually compact utility vehicles (CUV) look the same.

    However, we are an upper “middle-class enclave in what is otherwise a super wealthy town”. There are no power lines to be seen. However, there are parts of New Jersey where it seems the neighbour was built to complement the power lines. I wouldn’t live near any power lines.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I think the fears of living near power lines is overblown. But they are not an attractive part of the landscape and their presence is not my idea of comfortable suburban living.

      1. Andy Umbo Avatar
        Andy Umbo

        Here’s an interesting article to read about living too close to power lines. BTW, after years of hovering over florescent tube light tables looking at film, I was surprised to read somewhere that many of the poorer quality tables didn’t have enough shielding to be “safe” for EMF when you were 1.5 feet away! Just goes to show you….

        https://en.geovital.com/how-close-is-too-close-when-living-near-transmission-power-lines/

  3. Mike Connealy Avatar

    Nice tonal range from that combination of film and processing.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Thank you! I especially like how the grass turned out. I’d like to continue refining my scanning technique to bring out greater sharpness, though.

  4. bodegabayf2 Avatar

    I enjoy developing black and white film. I really dislike scanning negatives.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’m not crazy about either task, but at least I have my development technique to a place where I get consistent results. Scanning isn’t awful, but it takes way too much time.

  5. Roger Meade Avatar
    Roger Meade

    That photo makes me appreciate my 135 year old wooden house in an uncool old mining town.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Ha, yes! Of course, a 135-year-old house has its own age-related issues!

  6. Reinhold Graf Avatar

    Reminds me somehow on the movie „war of the worlds“ in its 2009 release :)

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’ve not seen that one! I assume this must look alien in origin?

      1. Reinhold Graf Avatar

        Indeed :)

  7. Jim Lucas Avatar
    Jim Lucas

    An interesting observation on Royal Run.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      Ah, I see you know the place!

      1. Jim Lucas Avatar
        Jim Lucas

        My daughter’s family lives on Wimbledon.I have ties to Zionsville through my In-Laws and have been in Boone County since 87. I also grew up in Terre Haute a stone’s throw from Rose Hulman, so I follow your blog with great interest.

        1. Jim Grey Avatar

          Yep, our lives have seen several of the same places over and over!

  8. tbm3fan Avatar
    tbm3fan

    Not a fan of cookie cutter neighborhoods of vinyl clad houses. Give me the older stucco bungalows in Berkeley or Oakland. Elsewhere I ‘ll take older neighborhoods with houses constructed from wood or brick. Out here our new developments use stucco painted in the same tan color block after block. Boring for one and none of them have a single square corner. My house in Concord in an older area of Concord where all houses look different and ours is brick and wood in the front under two Oaks and a Redwood.

    1. Jim Grey Avatar

      I’m not either. We moved here because it made sense for a few key reasons not related to the vinyl siding. I look forward to moving out. But I will say this: this is the safest neighborhood I’ve ever lived in by far, and people keep their properties up. I haven’t always had those things when I’ve lived in the city in the older neighborhoods.

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