Setting the Floodgate, New York City

Setting the Floodgate, New York City

 

Setting the Gate:

New 45-ton Floodgate in Asser Levy Park, New York City

 

 

Work on our photography contract with they city’s 1.5-billion East Side Coastal Resiliency Project continues, as a new 45-ton, nearly 80-foot long gate at Asser Levy Park is installed.

The massive gate was trucked in on a flatbed, and raised into position in front of the gorgeous bath house, opened in 1908 to alleviate sanitary problems in the city. Many New Yorkers, especially immigrants living in overcrowded tenements, had no place to bathe.

The floodgate will close when the city is forecasted to receive major surges of ocean water from coastal storms.

The gate rolls on slowly-moving wheels, taking a full five minutes lock into place and block off the southern portion of the park, which opens onto East 23rd Street, from potential flooding. 

Asser Levy Park is the first of five parks being redesigned or rebuilt for the $1.5 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project, which is set to provide flood protection for nearly 100,000 area residents.

Get in Touch

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Challenging terrain, geography and environments are a personal specialty.  Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting and subcontracting.
  • WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING CERTIFICATES S-130/190, L-180 
  • FAA PART 107 Since 2017
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  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

 

145 NEPERAN ROAD, TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

 

 

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Bureau of Land Management: Fire Preparedness Review

Bureau of Land Management: Fire Preparedness Review

 

Wildland Firefighting:

Preparedness Review for the Bureau of Land Management

 

A bee sting lays low a wildland firefighter in the Mojave Desert of St. George, Utah — or did it? This mock fire attack was part of the Arizona Strip District’s fire preparedness review at the start of the wildland fire season in the American Southwest.

Working and traveling with the Bureau of Land Management’s fire preparedness review team brought me to the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, 110-degree heat in Yuma, Arizona, and some pretty spectacular landscapes.

But the main purpose of the project was to capture the work of the Bureau’s Fire Preparedness Review Team: their mock fire exercises, equipment reviews, remote stations and helitack operations, and fuels management programs.

 

 

KINGMAN, AZ – MAY 15: Wildland firefighters from the Colorado River District wait for radio communications while attacking a mock fire in the desert east of Kingman, Arizona. The exercise was part of the 2022 Arizona Fire Preparedness Review in Kingman, Arizona on Sunday, May 15, 2022. Photo by Suzanne Allman, contract photographer for BLM

 

 

The picture of the “injured” firefighter was taken as part of one of these mock exercises in the Mojave Desert in the southwest corner of Utah. Firefighters of the Arizona Strip District practiced responding to environmental hazards — among them, the allergic reaction to a bee sting that required treatment, evacuation and calls for an airlift.

The ten-day photography project encompassed the Districts of the Arizona Strip, Colorado River and Phoenix area; we drove through desert, canyon, chaparal, and those gorgeous, butterscotch-scented Ponderosa pine forests.

 

 

A wildland firefighter deploys a hose to fight a mock fire in the desert east of Kingman, Arizona. Photo by Suzanne Allman, contract photographer for BLM

 

 

This project is part of a three-year blanket purchase agreement with the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management, to provide photo and video coverage of the BLM’s fire program on public lands.

 

 

A team of wildland firefighters from Kingman sets out with flappers, pulaskis and other tools to attack a mock fire in the desert east of Kingman, Arizona. Photo by Suzanne Allman, contract photographer for BLM

 

 

Environmental services photography assignments share a common thread. Whether they’re regulatory-driven initiatives, or projects designed to raise the profile of an agency, or to educate citizens about a particular problem or issue, these projects work to gain local support for community-based solutions.

 

 

 

With the rocky peaks of the Hualapai Mountains as a backdrop, firefighters use a brushcutter to trim fuels on a fuel break surrounding the community of Pine Lake, south of Kingman, Arizona on Monday, May 16 2022. Photo by Suzanne Allman, contract photographer for BLM.

The Virgin River flows between red rock canyon walls in the Bureau of Land Management’s Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area. Photo by Suzanne Allman, contract photographer for BLM

Get in Touch

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Challenging terrain, geography and environments are a personal specialty.  Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting and subcontracting.
  • WILDLAND FIREFIGHTING CERTIFICATES S-130/190, L-180 
  • FAA PART 107 Since 2017
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

 

145 NEPERAN ROAD, TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

 

 

CONTACT

 

SERVING ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE INDUSTRIES, ENGINEERS AND AGENCIES BY USING PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORCE FOR GOOD.

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Bird Banding Public Session, Albany Pine Bush

Bird Banding Public Session, Albany Pine Bush

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Albany Pine Bush:

Public Bird Banding

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before the sun rises, the bird banding tent is already set up at Albany Pine Bush Preserve. Ornithologists will work all day in the late summer heat as birds begin their fall migration.

This assignment, for the Hudson River Valley Greenway, brought me in closer contact with these little guys. But it’s also always interesting to see scientists and the public — especially when they’re younger — connect over an interesting topic.

 

Early morning bird hike at Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center in Albany, New York.

 

Environmental services photography assignments share a common thread. Whether they’re regulatory-driven initiatives, or projects designed to raise the profile of an agency, or to educate citizens about a particular problem or issue, these projects work to gain local support for community-based solutions. And what kid wouldn’t want to hold a small bird for a moment, then release it into the sky?

 

 

A Nashville warbler in the hands of an ornithologist at the Albany Pine Bush preserve in Albany, New York. Photo ©Suzy Allman Environmental Services Photography

 

Albany Pine Bush is a designated Bird Conservation Area and home to a surprising number (given it small size) of Species of Greatest Conservation Need (species that are rare or declining).

 

Get in Touch

______________

Put my background in editorial sports photography to work for your next project. Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

 

145 NEPERAN ROAD, TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

 

 

CONTACT

 

SERVING ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE INDUSTRIES, ENGINEERS AND AGENCIES BY USING PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORCE FOR GOOD.

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Energy in Photography

Energy in Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Energy and Action in Environmental Photography

 

 

 

 

Even in environmental photography, where the landscape is often a static thing, it’s important to look for movement and energy.

I worked for fifteen years as a sports photographer, and it was a great arena to learn cutting-edge technology (those surfing photographers were always the first with a cool underwater development!), peak-action timing and deadline filing.  But most of all — and beyond developing a love of sports in general — I grew to love the energy in pictures that emerge from sports.

 

 

New York Jets football; track meet, Van Cortlandt Park; US Tennis Open.

 

 

Sports photography can be quiet and contemplative, and sometimes depict just an expression or a stance, but my favorites are more often of the human body in motion. In these photos, there is power, tension, energy, accomplishment — or sometimes, failure. And failure can have just as much energy as great accomplishment.

Things slow down a little bit away from sports, but I still look for the energy in any scene I’m photographing. Energy gives life and tension to the static photo. One of my priorities when I’m shooting is to look for, or wait for, an expression of the energy in a scene.

Especially when that energy comes from a human being, whether in motion or conveyed in a stance or expression, energy in a photograph does more than show you what a place looks like. It shows you what it feels like to be there.

 

Energy can be an expression. Steven Hooker of Australia celebrates after clearing 5.80 during the Mens’ Pole Vault competition of the Adidas Grand Prix 2010 at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City, New York.

 

Get in Touch

______________

Put my background in editorial sports photography to work for your next project. Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

 

145 NEPERAN ROAD, TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

 

 

CONTACT

 

SERVING ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE INDUSTRIES, ENGINEERS AND AGENCIES BY USING PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORCE FOR GOOD.

Qualify Us Now! ProView

Certified: Wildfire Behavior

Certified: Wildfire Behavior

 

Allman Environmental Services Photography LLC was recently awarded a 3-year BPA contract to cover wildland fires and wildland fire-related activities in the American West, Southwest and Alaska. The photography and videography will support the Bureau of Land Management, under the Department of the Interior, in their efforts to tell the story of wildland fire work to the public.

To prepare for the work in these challenging environments, New York Wildfire & Incident Management Academy in Southampton, New York provided the training, under the magnanimous direction of Willy Cirone (pictured with bunny ears). 

 

 

 

Get in Touch

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We’re always training and always learning. If you have a job that requires photography in challenging or dangerous environments for which specialized training is needed, we’re happy to get the needed certification.

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • CERTIFIED: S-130/190, L-180 for wildland and basic firefighting
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

Foggy Morning, Mario M. Cuomo Bridge

Foggy Morning, Mario M. Cuomo Bridge

Fog swallows up the legs of the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge where it spans the widest part of the Hudson River. While it was being constructed, the bridge was the largest infrastructure project in the United States. Photo for a private client.

Get in Touch

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Don’t stop at progress photography. A different take on your projects can provide a unique perspective for annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

Remote Area Medical Moves On

Remote Area Medical Moves On

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving On:

Remote Area Medical in Wise, Virginia 

 

 

 

 

After years of bringing free medical, dental and vision services to the Appalachian communities around Wise, Virginia, the Remote Area Medical (RAM) expedition moves on.

 

people of appalachia waiting in line for medical care

Waiting in line in the early morning for medical and dental care. Uninsured patients stand in long lines — some arriving the night before and sleeping in cars — to receive fillings, medications and check-ups.

 

 

 

The first time I covered the Remote Area Medical Expedition to Appalachia, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Children in their pajamas, sleeping in cars. Emergency medical treatments in the sheep barn of the Wise, Virginia county fairgrounds. Teens getting full-mouth extractions in the dental tent. Exhausted doctors, dentists, nurses working from sun-up to sundown. It reminded me of a MASH unit, deployed in a mountain town in the United States. 

Those were the early years of the RAM’s Wise expeditions. Taking place over one long weekend in July, the expedition involved hundreds of doctors, dentists, audiologists, optometrists, and logistics personnel working out of the barns, tents and stables of the county fairgrounds. Volunteer healthcare workers came from all over the country to donate their services and, for university students, to work on the front lines of the uninsured crisis in America. 

I’ve covered the expeditions for years, first as an enterprise self-assignment, then for the University of Virginia, Getty and The New York Times. I met a lot of good people . Many of them slept in their cars in order to secure medical and dental care the following day. I met a woman who used lemon oil to dull the pain in her teeth. Full-mouth extractions in young men and women — some not even out of their teens — were called “a rite of passage” by dentists who came from all over the country.

 

 

black and white photo of man in t-shirt in appalachia

A medium format camera with black-and-white film allowed me to approach people waiting for medical and dental care. Mostly I found them to be kind, open to talking and being photographed and telling their stories.

 

The southwest corner of Virginia still faces significant healthcare challenges. Black lung disease from coal mining remains prevalent. Most alarmingly, an advanced stage, progressive massive fibrosis appears to be on the rise. 

But I recently learned that, in 2020, the expedition did not return to Wise for the first time in 20 years. The reason? Virginia has expanded the Medicaid eligibility for thousands of people in the area, and so the long lines that used to wrap around the livestock barns have dwindled in recent years. 

That’s a good thing. And RAM has moved on, bringing its army of volunteers to other communities in need across the United States.

 

 

 

Get in Touch

______________

Creating lasting change and doing meaningful work: Let Allman Environmental Services Photography tell the story of how you’re bringing change to your community, state, or country. Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

The Unusable Picture

The Unusable Picture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Unusable Picture

 

 

 

 

Safety first, and everybody goes home well.

There are some pictures you take, and file away, and make sure they never make it to your client.

The picture above is one I like, but I never used it. It shows Frank, a detonation expert, working on a highway project in Virginia. But I would never send it, because even one OSHA violation is one too many.

So this one went into the files.

Get in Touch

______________

Put my background in editorial sports photography to work for your next project. Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

Setting the Gate: East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, New York City

Setting the Gate: East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, New York City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

East Side Coastal Resiliency Project:

Setting the Gate

 

 

 

 

This week, our work continued at the East Side Coastal Resiliency project in lower Manhattan. Perfetto Construction Corp. sets the first of 18 massive steel gates designed to hold back the flood waters of rising sea level storm events. New York City, February 22.

About the picture: A Bay Crane worker tests and adjusts the rigging connecting a 32-ton steel floodgate to the crane that will hoist it into position, the first of 18 floodgates to be set in the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project in lower Manhattan. It takes several people to attach the crane rigging to the massive floodgate, which arrived in a horizontal position and had to be lifted off the truck bed. Before it’s lifted, the rigging has to be tested several times. It was a long wait in the chilly February air blowing off the East River, but finally the gate was hoisted and set onto its hinges, the way a regular door is hung. Just heavier.

The project is the largest resiliency project in the United States. With a series of berms, floodgates and walls, the 1.45 billion-dollar project will protect more than 100,000 residents from storm surges and rising sea level.

a crane and rigging prepare to hoist a massive steel gate in a black and white picture

Preparing to hoist the floodgate. A Bay Crane and rigging would lift the gate into the vertical position; workers would lower it onto its hinges.

 

The project also improves the landscape and parks of the East Side, adding playgrounds, paths, raised parks, ballfields and gardens. The next big milestone for the project will be the Asser Levy Playground, which will include floodgates and flood walls integrated into the playground’s landscape.

This is a massive, $302,000 contract for us, involving thousands of prints and many visits over the four-year span of the project. 

Get in Touch

______________

Put my background in editorial sports photography to work for your next project. Capture the energy of your team at work, on training and field exercises, with heavy equipment or in challenging environmental conditions. These photos can be used again and again: in annual reports, your socials, on office walls and other marketing deliverables.  -Suzanne

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

Digitizing William Henry Jackson’s Work for National Park Services

Digitizing William Henry Jackson’s Work for National Park Services

Federal Contracting in Nebraska:

Digitizing the Work of William Henry Jackson

 

 

 

Our assignment from the National Park Services: digitally archive the paintings and sketches of William Henry Jackson. 

William Henry Jackson’s images of Yellowstone, the Colorado Rockies, the native cultures of the Southwest and of the great geological survey teams of the period make up the largest and most significant body of American landscape photographs sent down to us through history.

We were hired by the Department of the Interior to digitize hundreds of Jackson’s works. I set up in the place where his collection is held, the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in far western Nebraska. Over one week, I digitized the extensive collection of oil and watercolor paintings, albumin stereoviews, sketches, maps, lithographic prints, pencil drawings, certificates and ink washes.

We spend whatever time it takes to fully research a project before beginning it, and for me that meant getting ahold of an out-of-print copy of “The Pioneer Photographer”, Bob Blair’s expanded edition of Jackson’s diaries and letters. One hundred sixty of Jackson’s images illustrate a narrative of the expanding American West of the 1860s and 70s, and a still-young American nation. It was an important asset in preparing for the digitizing process.

A painting of horses and a covered wagon crossing the mountains of Oregon

Blue Mountains, Oregon. Watercolor, William Henry Jackson

By the time I got to Nebraska, I was a fan. I’d read the colorful stories attached to the creation of the paintings. And so it was slightly disorienting to spend so much time with the paintings themselves.  Here was the sketch of the mule who spied on the artist as he painted. Here was the great oil painting of the Holy Cross, a rock formation in the mountains (Jackson was disappointed with his foreground work, and so repainted over it). Here were the black-and-white photographs of mountains and canyons, never previously photographed but taken at such risk and difficulty for the surveying team.

A highlight of this trip, for me, was exploring the land around the two national monuments, Scotts Bluff and Agate Fossil Beds. Because it’s possible today to explore the exact locations where Jackson had created his images, I wandered the Scotts Bluff area, trying to match up the painted images with the landscape as it appears today.

 

A painting of the American Plains, showing a tepee, horses, encampments, and covered wagons crossing the flat landscape

“Because the transcontinental railroad had not bridged the Western United States, the Oregon Trail was still teeming with activity as Jackson headed west, fording the South Platte near Julesburg, Colorado, in 1866. The river, more than half a mile wide, was filled from bank to bank with teams.” — from The Pioneer Photographer

 

photo of workroom showing process of still photography of artwork

Digitizing William Henry Jackson’s collection, held in Agate Fossil National Monument. Harrison, Nebraska.

 

Always one of the main attractions: hiking after the work is done.

a canyon at the end of the day in Nebraska

Smiley Canyon, Nebraska.

Get in Touch

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Allman Environmental Services Photography is ready for and experienced in Federal contracting. Get in touch to see how teaming with AESP on your next Federal contract can help you meet your diversity and documentation goals. 

We are based in the Northeast and work anywhere in the United States.

 

  • CERTIFIED: SBA-certified WOSB, New York State- and City-certified WBE, and Port Authority certified DBE
  • REGISTERED: SAM & ORCA. Experienced in Federal Government contracting.
  • DUNS: 839898728.
  • FEIN: 84-2603642
  • OSHA 10 and OSHA 30 certified.
  • FAA Part 107 licensed.
  • We accept all government agency purchase orders and credit cards.

 

145 NEPERAN ROAD, TARRYTOWN, NY 10591

 

 

CONTACT

 

SERVING ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE INDUSTRIES, ENGINEERS AND AGENCIES BY USING PHOTOGRAPHY AS A FORCE FOR GOOD.

Qualify Us Now! ProView