Automotive & Event Photographer | Eric Mastrangelo » demolition

Old Skool

emasterphoto — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 04:08:27 +0000

A few weeks back I had the chance to shoot the demolition of the 111 year old Terrace Avenue school building here in New Castle, PA. The demolition was an emergency demo due to the fact that one of the walls had collapsed earlier, and thus the city had no choice but to bring the rest down. According to the local paper, the demo was stopped at one point by the state due to concerns of asbestos, but on the day I was there the demo was in full swing. Since I found out about the demo a short time after it had started, a majority of the building had already been brought down by machine prior to the pics I took. When I was there, they were in the process of bringing down the bell tower, which was too high to be done by machines and had to be demoed by hand.

In the pics below you’ll see the crew working the top of the tower, standing on the floor of the bell room that housed the school’s bell, which was laying nearby rather solemnly. There was a dome and cross above the room that added another 20-30ft in height to the structure, but that had been removed the day before. The entire time, firefighters were spraying water onto the rubble pile in an effort to keep the dust to a minimum, which also added a bit of drama to the scene, and can really be felt in the pics I took of the lonely, fallen bell. Ironically, I also came across an old election sign laying nearby for school director, which together with the fallen bell, gave the scene a strong sense of finality and being a somewhat gritty end to the long era of the school’s existence.

Grand Finale

emasterphoto — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 08:46:51 +0000

Completed the shots of the final round of the ’09 Lawrence County Fair demolition derby tonight. Since it was really just a “best of show” type round amongst the finalists from the prior rounds, the car count was fairly low and the action not as intense overall. Still, a few good hits here and there, but mostly just a good time for the victors. Here’s some highlights:

And finally, the slideshow for the complete gallery of images from the derby:

View Gallery

Round 4

emasterphoto — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:24:43 +0000

Finished editing Round 4 from the ’09 Lawrence County Fair demolition derby tonight. This was the final round of the normal classes, with Round 5 being a “championship” round with the winners from the previous rounds all competing for the final prize. Here’s some of my favorites from the round:

Round 3

emasterphoto — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:51:34 +0000

Going through my backlog tonight and finished up Round 3 from the Lawrence County Fair demolition derby. This round featured full-sized cars as the main contestants and as a result the hits were harder and the action more frantic. Rounds 4 and 5 were the “playoffs” so to speak, so the cars were fewer and already half-dead by then, thus this round was probably the most exciting of the night. The latter rounds will get posted in a short while, and who will the champion be, I wonder?

And like before, here’s a slideshow of the full derby gallery up to this round:

View Gallery

Round 2

emasterphoto — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:34:59 +0000

Had some more free time today to work on my editing backlog. This round I finished and posted the second round pictures from the recent demolition derby at the Lawrence County Fair last month. Below are some of my favorites from the batch.

Here’s a slideshow for the entire current gallery as well.

View Gallery

Round 1

emasterphoto — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:38:16 +0000

Got a chance to cull through more of the photos from last weekend’s demolition derby at the Lawrence County Fair. They’re posted up to the gallery with the prior shots and are of the first round of cars, which was mainly 4-cylinder vehicles. I’ve included some shots below that I like best, and a slideshow of the current gallery follows.

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The Start Of Something Great

emasterphoto — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:29:27 +0000

Tonight I’ve been culling through the shots from this past Saturday’s demolition derby at the Lawrence County Fair. I’ve put up a gallery for it on my main home page, but here’s a few of my favorites from tonight. The derby was in five rounds, so I’ll post each round progressively as I get through them. To start with I’ve posted up some pre-race shots as an appetizer, and you can view them here. A derby is just pure chaos to shoot as there’s so much going on and the volume of shots is necessarily high, but I’m already seeing some standout shots that really capture the feel of the event, so those I’ll post here although the bulk of the shots will be in the main gallery. I hope you enjoy!