I went with a couple of photo friends to the C&H Sugar refinery in Crockett this past weekend. Our intent was to shoot the refinery at the blue hour, when the building’s sign is lit up and there’s still some light in the sky. When we arrived around 5:30, the scene looked like this:

Soon after sunset, the scene looked like this (with a passing train):

The C&H sign lights up at about 6:30:

The following shot was taken at 6:37:

Scouting was important. At first, we were planning to shoot from ground level, but the rail cars ruined the image. We scouted around and found a spot on a small hill behind a church school that gave us an unobstructed, elevated view of the factory—and got us up above the rail cars.

I’ve photographed this refinery four times now; I think I’ve gotten the shots I want, so I’ll STOP going back to Crockett for the time being.