Picked clean at the shoreline
leaning from the boat,
stretched long, almost tipping,
fingers grazing and fumbling
among shiny oval leaves.
Half for the pail,
half for me.
Sweet and sour, an unlikely crop
for a ponds edge.
Water and sun, we found the rock, a shelf,
stepped out and dove in.
Muck on the bottom squeezing between toes,
then we back float, feet held high,
that quicksand will swallow you whole.
We dove again, and surfaced with
a mussel clamped to a stick.
And another on the bottom
a hole in the shell,
big enough for a small finger,
soft, white, wet, slimy.
Touch it.
This small life lived here,
stuck,
near the shore of the pond.
So what have I been doing for the past month? Futzing with my new iphone. These devices are distracting. I end up playing a session of angry birds rather than work on my latest book design – which is a reworking of the asylum photographs into a larger 13″x11″ book design.
But the newness of the iphone is wearing off finally (it’s my first smart phone), and I’m getting back to work on important projects. And occasionally playing with the phone. It has a decent 5 megapixel camera, and there are some good photo apps available. My current favorite is the ShakeItPhoto app, which does a good job of capturing the look of a polaroid.
I’ve also been enjoying summer, spending time swimming and hiking, canoeing.
I took a few days for a hiking trip to the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. It is one of my favorite places to go. I love hiking and the beauty of the mountains, and the adks are a great place to get both in large doses.
I do a fair amount of hiking. Rather than head to the gym, I go for a hike. Year round, even in the darkest days of winter I’ll strap on a head light and head out for a hike a couple times a week. One of my favorite local places to hike is Mt. Greylock. There are over 50 miles of trails on the mountain, and there is a variety of terrain and trail difficulty.
There are some good hikes linked here on the state website. On Sunday I hiked the Hopper Trail on the Williamstown side of the mountain. It’s a beautiful area, the Hopper is a designated national natural landmark, there are old growth trees, and the unique topography makes for great hiking. The Hopper forms a natural bowl on the west facing side of Greylock, the surrounding peaks of Stoney Ledge, and Mt Prospect make excellent hikes in themselves. I wrote a hike review some years ago on an excellent loop hike that starts in the Hopper, and goes to the summit of Greylock via the Money Brook and the Appalachian trails. A hard all day hike, but one of the best in area.
But Sunday I did a shorter hike up the Hopper Trail to the Sperry Road campround and back down. There are alternate routes that can make this a loop hike by walking down Sperry Road to Stoney Ledge, then down the Haley Farm trail. But I was short on time, so did an up and back. It had been raining, and the cloud cover was low, so some beautiful fog through the trees.
Hopper Trail
Hopper Trail
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These are some photographs from one of my favorite projects – the Tahawus Mine in the High Peaks regions of New York’s Adirondack mountains. The High Peaks are also one of my favorite places for hiking and camping, which I did for years before discovering the Tahawus mine ruins. The mine ruins were located on what was the town of Tahawus. The town was relocated south to Newcomb in order for the mine to expand operations. The entire photo essay can be found here http://www.oboylephoto.com/mine/index.htm The mine buildings were razed a few years ago, but the landscape still tells the story of the past.
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
Tahawus Mine
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What photographer can resist the the traveling carnival as a subject? The Carnival is in town.
Dalton Carnival
Dalton Carnival
Dalton Carnival
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Main Office - New Home Sewing Machine Company
Orange MA has some interesting mid-late 19th century industrial architecture that is sitting vacant, or little used. The buildings were the former offices and manufacturing facilities of the New Home Sewing Machine Company. These building sit alongs the Miller River which was used to power the mills, and are also adjascent to the old Fitchburg Rail line that ran (and runs) from Boston to Troy New York through the Hoosac Tunnel.
New Home Sewing Machine Company
New Home Sewing Machine Company
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East Portal Hoosic Tunnel
Another visit to the Hoosac Tunnel east portal in Florida MA this past weekend. On this visit the tunnel had less diesel smoke from passing trains, so I was able to get a better photograph.
I was photographing the ruins of the nearby compressor building. The compressor building, while there isn’t much left to look at now, converted water power into compressed air to power drills used during construction of the tunnel. Previous to this drilling for setting explosives was done by hand.
The infrastructure that was required for the construction of the compressor building was significant, requiring daming the Deerfield River and constructing a long canal to provide the turbines with water to drive the compressors. In the end the water supply proved to be unreliable, so the compressors were converted to steam power.
I included some photographs from Jerry Kelley’s website, where he has a great overview of the history of the construction of the Hoosac Tunnel.
Compressor Building
Compressor Building
Compressor Building in ruin - date unknown
Go here to see Jerry’s pages on the compressor and canal.
http://www.jkrails.net/Compressor.htm
http://www.jkrails.net/Dam.htm
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One of the great things about heading out with your camera is finding the unexpected. I was hiking by a river, scouting for another project, when I stumbled upon this abandoned Plymouth Belvedere. I think it is a 1954 Belvedere, but not certain of that. It is quite well preserved, considering it had been sitting here for uncounted years. The doors were locked, windows shut. I’ll be following up with a revisit to this beautiful old car.
Hoosac Tunnel - East Portal
Hoosac Tunnel West Portal
These photographs – both taken on the same day, show the east and west portal of the Hoosac Tunnel. I shot the west portal first, early in the morning, then drove over the Hoosac mountain range to get to the east portal, during which time a train came through, leaving a lot of diesel smoke in the tunnel. Still an interesting comparison of the two end of one of the oldest tunnels in the US. The west end is looking pretty shabby, with the remains of a broken door covering the original beautiful stone work entrance. This should be removed, it is a historic tunnel, bought with the lives of over 200 men during the 25 years of construction, and it deserves to be better tended and preserved. The two ends are almost 5 miles apart in a straight line, but the tunnel ascends from both ends to a high point in the center, so you can’t see through to the other portal.
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A new loosely defined project. Photograph the architecture, and whatever else is interesting, along a corridor defined by an old rail line. The idea is that the rail line was the seed that many of these towns and industries sprang from. So it is the root of these communtities, even though that rail line has all but ceased to exist.
An analogy that comes to mind is a strangler fig tree, which grows around a host tree. Eventually the host tree dies and decays and disappears, leaving a massive fig tree with a hollow interior the shape of the host tree. This project is all about shooting that fig tree, the interior and exterior.
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A moment in time is up at the New York Times Lens blog. This project captures a moment on May 2nd at 11am (east coast time) all around the world.
I’m still digging through the thousands of photographs to see if my shot made the cut, under nature and environment. It is worth a look.
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- Saw Whet Owls
If you dissect a bird
to diagram his tongue
you’ll cut the chord
articulating song
- Weasels
If you flay a beast
to marvel at the mane,
you’ll wreck the rest
from which the fur began
Stanza’s from Trio Of Love Songs by Sylvia Plath
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cocktails and bowling
Does it get any better than cocktails and bowling?
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I couldn’t resist these exquisite biology class models of brains. The models I photographed here are quite old, and show years of student handling. In the upper photo on the left is a trout brain, on right is a hare brain. In the lower photo, trout on left and pigeon brain on the right. I didn’t note what the center model was, anyone know, or care to hazard a guess?
The models are made by the Denoyer-Geppert Co., and a quick visit to their website shows some excellent anatomy models. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t find any fish, amphibian or bird brains listed on their current web catalog.
Hare brain and bird brain, now we have the models to see what they actually look like.
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Night photographs of this post-industrial city near where I grew up. I shot these in 2002-2003 with a hand held 3-megapixel point & shoot camera. I like the sketchy nature of the images, almost like drawings. I’m interested in the old neighborhoods near the industrial area, in the true heart of the city. More from this series linked here.
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Silo's
I’m working on a photography project, and am finding that early Sunday mornings are a great time to get out and take photographs. It’s quiet, people are sleeping in, and the streets are empty. Taking photographs outside in public view tends to draw a lot of attention. Especially if you are photographing something unusual, like a factory, an old house, or a railroad bridge. Everyone wants to know what I am up to, if I am some sort of threat. So I like shooting on Sunday mornings because it offers me some space to work in. This photograph is of a pair of silo’s found along an old rail line. These are relics of when that line was a big influence on the industrial development along its route. Now it’s very lightly used, and these ruins stand as memories to that industrial past.
Telephone Directory
Old things interest me, they are evocative, they have a rich visual language. Most of my work is about old things – buildings, objects, even landscapes. Why give so much attention to old things? It is what interests me, I’m drawn to it. Even after photographing this subject for over 20 years, I still find it interesting. It is a combined interest in archaeology, local history and the visual pleasure of aged surfaces. Memory plays an important role in this work. Also just being curious about my surrounding and what I see – wanting to connect the dots. Objects, and even buildings, seen as artifacts, are much different than having experienced them when they were in use. When function leaves these things, they become something different. Symbols, representative of something else, evoking another time and reality. They are rich, these old places and things, visually, historically. They are curiosities.
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This is a preview of my latest self-published book available at Blurb.com. The title is bazaar/ curiosities, and is the result of 4 years of taking photographs at flea markets, garage sales and old antique shops. It is a study of the curiousities found at these places. This book is entered in the Photography Book Now juried book competition. You can see a preview of some pages in the book by playing the above preview. The book is large 11″x13″, so qualifes as a coffee table book, and the photograph on each page are large. The price of the book may be alarming @ $117.95, but one off print on demand books are unique, and expensive to make one at a time. You are buying something that is likely to be owned by only a handfull of people, so is quite unique. The printing quality is high, on heavy paper, and the book layout and design is simple yet elegant. Follow the link above if interested in purchasing the book.
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Ugly Roadside Architecture
I enjoy ugly buildings. What constitutes interesting architecture anyway? Noble proportions, interesting detail, grand scale? I find that often it is the simplest buildings, the most basic delapitated structures that I am attracted to. It is a catagory I would call ineligant neglected roadside architecture. These buildings are a product of their local culture and economy. It’s not organic architecture, because often the structures are pre-fab metal buildings. But they fit a need, they do the job. They have character because of their state of neglect. They have become normalized to their environment, modified in some way to make them unique. I’m not a fan of standard pre-fab structures – unless they have these differences. An essential ingredient is character, mood, tone. They radiate their influence over their environment, set the tone for the neighborhood. Ugly architecture is ok, even good. It’s honest. And there is plenty of it, take a drive down the commercial strip heading out of town, until it thins out a bit, the rents start to drop, and this is where things start to get interesting. Give it a try, take a drive, let me know what you think.
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Fish in Tank
I’m apparently attracted to aquatic subjects lately, this shot appeals to me because of the rich color and movement, and the shape of the fish. I recently renamed this blog Fresh Fish, inspired in large part by the shot of the Sardines (see below) at a Chinatown fish market. So I might as well keep it going. This is another shot from the Central Park Zoo visit last weekend.
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Penguin House - Central Park Zoo
Penguin House in the Central Park Zoo. Another stop in our visit to NYC this past weekend. This is another place in NYC which I hadn’t visited until now. You discover a different New York when traveling with children. A slower pace, less distance covered, and a more relaxed time. We visited places that were off the map when I was living in the city and going to school. It was a really enjoyable couple of days. New York on a nice day in the spring is hard to beat.
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Deer Lake Drive-in
After seeing Carl Weese’s beautiful shot of the Pike Drive-in, I went digging for some of my drive-in photographs. This is from Deer Lake PA, an area where I photographed extensively for my Anthracite Region essay. I find this area of Pennsylvania to be fascinating, it preserves something that has been lost in many areas. It is a coal mining region, so until recently the economy in these areas has been flat, with high enemployment. Not much development - and that is what interests me. It’s like traveling in a time warp when in the area, the towns and patches (small clusters of houses), haven’t changed much in 50 years. The area preserves a unique architecture and I will be posting on that soon.
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Sardines
Chinatown fish market, NYC.
Check out this deal on platinum paladium prints over at The Online Photographer. Carl Weese is offering prints at a very reasonable price. My favorite is the Pike Drive-in print, and I have one on order. BTW, The Online Photographer is one of my most frequent stops on the web, great posts every day, highly recommended.
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we have shoes
This side alley caught my eye while walking down Canal Street in New York yesterday. The scene on Canal has changed quite a bit since I lived in the city. If anything, there is a more frenetic pace to the stretch between Broadway and Mott. I miss the weekend flea market that was a mainstay for years, no sign of it now. The unfortunate part of this walk was that my wife Wendy had her pocketbook picked sometime around when this photo was snapped, and the bum relieved us of over $100. First time this happened to us in our many visits to the city, and all the time I lived here. I don’t think it’s an indication of crime getting worse in the city, since the 80′s the place has become down right family friendly. Just bad luck, and a very crowded Canal street, perfect for pickpockets.
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