Schlumberger Gould Research Centre

Today I took a walk to the Schlumberger Gould Research Centre to do a shoot for my project. I chose to go today, as I had the opportunity to go there at the optimal shooting time (between 12pm-3pm) and the weather was suitable. I am hoping to obtain a good enough set of panoramic images for stitching into a panorama. The Schlumberger building is an interesting looking building and despite living only a mile away from it and seeing it on a daily basis, I had absolutely no idea what the function of the building was or what it was used for until I did some research afterwards.

“The Schlumberger Gould Research Center (SGR) on the western outskirts of Cambridge, England, is a distinctive marquee-like structure housing multidisciplinary research teams of more than 100 scientists and technicians. Research focuses on drilling, chemistry, fluid mechanics, and seismics, through a combination of theory, experiment, and computational simulation.

Founded in 1982 as Schlumberger Cambridge Research under the leadership of Bernard Vivet, the center was renamed as Schlumberger Gould Research at an inauguration ceremony on October 4th, 2012 in recognition of the retiring Chairman and CEO, Andrew Gould, and his career long commitment to research and development.

With a strengthened focus on drilling, the company is now embarking on the development of the integrated drilling technologies needed in the future to produce oil and gas safely, efficiently, and with the required environmental care. The Schlumberger Gould Research Center is expanding to become the primary company research facility for these developments.”

(Slb.com, 2014)

Charles Babbage Road, Location of Schlumberger Building © Richard Brochu-Williams

Schlumberger Building © Richard Brochu-Williams

I took several panoramas whilst visiting the Schlumberger Building and I am hoping that I will be able to produce a good image from these. I will be editing and stitching tomorrow.

References

Slb.com, (2014). Gould Research Center, Schlumberger. [online] Available at: http://www.slb.com/about/rd/research/sgr.aspx [Accessed 27 Jul. 2014].

Photo Shoots

Over the last couple of days I have been busy organising photo shoots at various locations. My first location was at the University of Cambridge. I chose this location because there is currently a lot of building work taking place and I thought it would be a good opportunity to capture some landscapes of an industrial nature. The buildings that I photographed were a mixture of newly finished buildings and buildings that were still in the process of being built, therefore there were some cranes and other building paraphernalia around.

University of Cambridge

West Cambridge, University of Cambridge © Richard Brochu-Williams

West Cambridge, University of Cambridge © Richard Brochu-Williams

West Cambridge, University of Cambridge © Richard Brochu-Williams

West Cambridge, University of Cambridge © Richard Brochu-Williams

West Cambridge, University of Cambridge © Richard Brochu-Williams

All images © Richard Brochu-Williams. All rights reserved

The buildings around the West Site of the University of Cambridge that I photographed are recent builds and in my opinion they are not the best looking buildings in the world. I tend to be more drawn towards older buildings like those that you will find in the centre of Cambridge, such as the old colleges (e.g. Kings College) as in my opinion these are more aesthetically pleasing. Not everyone will share the same opinion as me but I found these buildings a good example of how modern infrastructure shapes the environment around us.

Dungeness

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

Dungeness, Kent © Richard Brochu-Williams

All Images © Richard Brochu-Williams. All rights reserved.

When I arrived in Dungeness, I realised that I had arrived at the best time for my shoot, as the sun was directly above me and therefore did not get into any of my shots whilst shooting 360º. From this I have deduced that the optimal time to shoot is from the hours of 11.30am – 2.30pm whilst the sun is still high up in the sky.

What I liked about the shoot in Dungeness (apart from the fact it was a beautiful day) was the contrast between the nuclear power station and the surrounding buildings with the beautiful untouched environment of the beach and the sea. Hopefully this will be depicted within my images.