Old Labs
More from the Friday Harbor laboratory, this time shots of some of the old labs, which are strung along the waterfront. The first shot is from this year, the others are all 2012. With the exception of this year’s shot, they were all jpegs, and so it was interesting to see what I could pull from those pictures with Lightroom and Topaz Clarity. As it turned out quite a lot, but definitely RAW is the way to go for this kind of processing, so much more that can be done without artifacts like the banding in the sky visible in a couple of these pictures.
These labs are firmly fixed in childhood memories, they have changed very little since then. Though the reflective foil in the windows was not a feature in the 1960s.
To open the gallery below for full screen viewing, click on any image, navigate with the arrows and escape to return to this page.
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- Lab 1 at end of pier, 2012
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- Lab 1, East end, 2012
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- Lab 2, 2013, west end
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- Lab 2, east end, 2012
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- Lab 4, east end 2012
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- Lab 4, Looking towards Main Lab and Lab 1, 2012
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- Lab 5, looking east, 2012
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- Lab 5, setting to east, 2012
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Canon 5Dii, Nikkor-N 24/2.8 lens, edited in Lightroom and then Topaz Clarity.
burnt embers 
These shots of the UW Friday Harbor Laboratories (or, in our parlance, “FHL”) are wonderful – thank you for posting them.
Both nostalgic and artistic simultaneously.
I, too, grew up spending at least a month nearly every summer at FHL, from 1967 until the early 2000s. My father was a UW Fisheries researcher and I was one of his fanatical lab assistants from a very early age.
We worked in every lab you shot, collecting and studying everything from Aequoria jellyfish (the ones that glow in the dark) to Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (also known as Chinook Salmon).
Thank you, thank you for these wonderful photos!
PS – the reason for the “quarantine area” is exactly as it seems – sometimes fish get infectious diseases, also – and while it is necessary to include their data in one’s results, one rarely wants to see them infect the entire remaining sample population.
cheers, and keep posting!
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Hi Sam, thanks so much for coming by and leaving your memories. I expect that we know each other, I was there before you, but also overlapping for a few years afterwards into the early 70’s. And my parents have been there most summers for the past 50 years, including this year.
I too was a lab assistant from a young age, with Aequoria among other animals being something that I collected. One of the things I liked doing the most was helping to make the ultra fine electrodes for inserting into a nerve cell, and catching jelly fish in large numbers. Another favourite was the night light, which no doubt you remember too, watching all the marine life that is attracted to the light in the water, or those that eat them hanging around the margins of the lighted area waiting their chance at a meal.
If you haven’t figured it out, by clicking on my tag for “friday harbor laboratories” just above the comments section, you will get links to all my related posts. Also, keep an eye out, as I have more shots from earlier in this year – I got distracted from the series, but mean to return to it. Including, for instance, interiors of the cabins and similar familiar subjects. Thanks again for your comments, very nice to be able to reminisce with someone that has similar experiences.
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Ah, yes – the night light. I remember one summer, we used it to attract food for a small octopus that we had in our tank for a couple weeks, before letting him go off Turn Island. Those were, literally, the days.
Beautiful work, please post the others!
Cheers,
~Sam
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Are these all still in use?
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I love the shadows in these photographs.
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Hi Karen – they are very much in use – some terrific science is done here, a lot of teaching as well. My dad had his lab in No.1 this year, but was usually in No.6 the past few years, which is over the hill beyond Lab 5 and he trees in the distance. When I was a kid Osamu Shimomura was doing his research in one of these labs which led to his Nobel Prize – I caught jelly fish for his research at 1c and 2c each through the years. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2008/press.html
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That is very cool! I’d love to visit those labs. Strangely, I just read something about the medical use of the fluorescent proteins in jellyfish. I guess we had better find more uses for them since they are taking over the ocean!
Your connections and stories make your posts so interesting. : )
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Thanks Karen – I have been fortunate in my surroundings, and while I try to keep the personal out of my blog in many ways, several people have commented on how much more interesting they find my stories when they are personal.
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Bold processing and fascinating architectural studies of these Labs.
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Thanks Andy. These places are burned into my personal geography, so it is particularly satisfying to get some interesting photographs of them.
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This is a very good series of shots.
In particular, I liked the 4 and its shadow in “Lab 4, East End.”
And the pattern on light and shadow on the road in “Lab 5, Looking East” and all the various containers on the left hand side of the road, with their different shapes and their (I think, anyway) random placement.
That tree in “Lab 5, Setting to East” is fantastic!
I like everything in “Lab 1 at End of Pier” but especially like the way the pier lead’s my eye into the photograph.
Also, the various bits of detritus that show up in most of them is nice; it makes me wonder how long that hand cart’s been sitting outside, for example!
The best of ’em all is “Lab 2, 2013, West End” – the texture of the aluminum foil is perfect, and I can almost hear it being pulled from the roll, and torn against the serrated edge of the box….
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Thanks for such a great reply! It is so nice when one can tell a picture has been looked at closely. The light last year was very good, and I was out at sunrise, which helps with the shadows.
I think the detritus actually moves around quite regularly, most of it is in use, at least occasionally.
I am hoping that the serrated edge was metal – the cardboard ones are nothing but frustrating and would have resulted in some failures and wastage on a job like this.
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The serrated edge SOUNDED like metal, anyway. So I am sure it was.
Look! A haiku!
The detritus moves
around quite regularly:
most of it in use.
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Yay! A poem in my blog:)
Detritus is a technical term in archaeology for the waste materials resulting from manufacturing, especially the chips of stone left behind when flint knapping. Much of it gets used as expedient sharp tools. Your haiku goes well with that usage too.
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All of these have taken very well to the treatment you’ve given them. I especially like “Lab 2, 2013, west end”. Detail is amazing in the series.
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Hello Ken. Thanks! That one is my favourite too, though I also like the one with arbutus trees of Lab 5 (even if the sky is awfully bright). The one you mention was the only RAW shot, so a lot more was possible in both LR4 and Clarity. And it has a good sky.
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