Author name: Satish

A ‘walking drag line’ is an excavator where the bucket is dragged by cables, rather than lifted by an arm. This permits the bucket to be much larger than those on shovels. Drag lines, because of their huge size, cannot move with wheels or bulldozer tracks. This one uses eccentric cams for walking. That’s why they are called ‘walking’ drag lines.

Location

Singrauli is a coal mining town in Madhya Pradesh. Nearest airport is 235 km away in Varanasi, UP. Singrauli is the energy capital of India and has four thermal power stations. Five more are under construction.

I happened to see the excavator when I was travelling from Singrauli to Ambikapur in Chattisgarh. Dark clouds hung low in the sky and rains were imminent. But I could take the shot before rains came down.

Camera Info

I shot this one with my Sony DSC-W35 camera. I used a wide angle focal length of 8.2 mm. Aperture was f/3.2 and shutter speed 1/500 sec. ISE speed was 100.

I came across a group of young workers laying a new power line. It was close to sunset. I was carrying my camera. They asked me to take their photo and I agreed. So they briefly stopped their work and posed for me. Some were carrying electrical insulators. After I took the shot, I showed it to them on the LCD screen of my Canon EOS 550D. They seemed happy and went back to work.

This photo will be published next month in the Winter 2014 issue of New Labor Forum, a magazine published in New York, USA.

Location

The image was captured near the salt pans of Vasai. The area was without electricity and running water. Many acres of land can be seen with hardly any human habitation.

Technical Data

The camera was in aperture priority mode with an aperture setting of f/8 so as to get a good depth of field. Shutter speed was 1/32 sec and focal length 18 mm.