Cylindrical Decrepitude
Focal Length: 20mm | Aperture: f3.2 | Exposure: 1/800 | ISO: 100 | Post: CS4
A friend took me down to a little nitty gritty nook roughly between the end of Maple Street and the sewage treatment/rail yard a mere stone’s throw from the waterfront on Saturday. It was the official first day of Spring and sunny skies with temperatures upwards of sixty degrees were forecasted but nay, a cool wind and grey clouds smashed any grandeur of Spring. Nonetheless, I was at home amongst the industrial grime that surrounded me, luscious rust, vibrant graffiti and delicate flakes of paint peeling before my very eyes. Retrospectively, it was a fantastic first day of Spring spent with a friend and her dog in the dirty kind of environs I dig on with my camera in hand. Perfect.
South End Grit
Focal Length: 20mm | Aperture: f4 | Exposure: 1/125 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
I was lucky enough to link up with friend and Chicago-based photographer Ian Merritt (IDM Photography), the day after Thanksgiving and ramble through what has become one of my favorite wastelands of industrial decay in the South End of B-Town off Flynn Avenue. I really cherish the exploring via the lens with a chum who shares the same excitement for photography and grimy subject matter, you find yourself feeding off of each other’s energy, almost pushing each other to find the ideal grab. It’s also really fun to see how the same place or subject is captured through another’s cam, what catches their eye, how they frame the shot etc. Ian is no exception, his work is incredible and I very much enjoy his keen eye and prolific body of work, swing through his kick-ass blog and be sure to peep the 50 Portraits Project he has underway, he also Tweets much more frequently than I, under the handle of @IDMPhoto.
Lusciously Mundane
Focal Length: 28mm | Aperture: f5.6 | Exposure: 1/400 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
So let’s be honest: I fucking adore color, especially in often overlooked everyday circumstances. The bright orange of a traffic cone set against the dull and dirty background of asphalt, vibrant graffiti lining the walls of an avoided alley, the vividly colored plastic of trash or recycling bins on the sidewalk, I love all these things. Fortunately, I’m surrounded by such occurrences on a daily basis (most of us are), the trick is putting effort into actually observing and appreciating the splashes of color that are apparent in our everyday lives. Take a walk and soak it up.
Lost Highway
Focal Length: 18mm | Aperture: f5.6 | Exposure: 1/4000 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
A little less than 1.5 miles of an empty four lane freeway spur off of I-89 spans from South Burlington into Burlington. The project was abandoned in the 1980’s due to funding and a few other programs that weren’t in the right place at the right time, deadlines were missed and eventually ideas shifted. Now this stretch of asphalt lies dormant and untouched, plants have begun to stake claim in cracks resulting from the ground shifting over the years. Jersey barriers adorned with colorful spraypaint block off the ends and a portion at the intersection of Industrial Ave. and Pine Streets has been turned into a makeshift parking lot for nearby businesses. It is a wasteland, an eerie graveyard of a public works project gone awry, a monument of what could have been. It’s also great place to add some miles to the shoes and snap a few rounds with the cam.
Barrett’s Trucking
Focal Length: 18mm | Aperture: f5.6 | Exposure: 1/500 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
While wandering Flynn Avenue, I walked into a truck yard with a few luscious industrial structures in various states of decay. This is the kind of stuff that makes me beam with delight upon discovery, worn colors and rough textures in areas that typically display bright “No Tresspassing” signs with chain-link fences and razorwire. More often than not, someone has already found a way in and I merely follow the tracks of those before me, camera in tow.
September Sky
Focal Length: 55mm | Aperture: f5.6 | Exposure: 1/4000 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
The clouds were the first thing I noticed when I relocated to the Green Mountain State of Vermont from California. NorCal has some clouds, sure and some fog too but neither can hold a candle to the utter awe and dynamic structure the billions of water droplets band together to create above us here in VT. I’m consistently blown away on an almost daily basis, there’s big fatty dark looming clouds, skinny streaky wispy clouds, clouds that look as if a rake had been dragged across the sky and mountainous clouds that billow into pillars that make Everest look like a dinky ‘ol pile of pebbles. I’ve come to make an effort to photograph exclusively on days offering some cloud cover, as opposed to my favored clear blue sky shooting on the San Francisco Streets. The clouds add additional dimension and character, ya dig?
Petrol Tanks
Focal Length: 35mm | Aperture: f5.6 | Exposure: 1/1250 | ISO: 1000 | Post: CS4
I was able to wander down Flynn Avenue today and let my eyes lead my feet through the industrial wasteland. I was practically in heaven, a bevy of grit and colorful dilapidation laid before me, and the clouds were incredible. I nailed down a handful of decent slams that I look forward to posting here in the days to come, but I wanted to throw this image up first as I adore the simplicity of it.
Burlington Brick
Focal Length: 31mm | Aperture: f9 | Exposure: 1/320 | ISO: 250 | Post: CS4
Delicious simplicity, texture, color and composition. I love how you can see where the city has made an effort to remove the graffiti from the brick, yet traces of it linger…
Sporti’s Burlington
Camera: Ilford Sporti | Film: Ilford HP5 120 | ISO: 400 | Post: CS4
I bought my second Ilford Sporti a few months ago off eBay from a chap in Britain. They seem to be quite rare in the states as my first Sporti was also from the UK. It’s a great little medium format (120) point and shoot camera built in [West] Germany during the 1960’s. It’s about as basic as you can get: two shutter speeds, focus from 5′ to infinity all encased almost entirely in metal so it’s pretty rugged for such a “cheap” camera. I love it’s retro looks and heft in addition to it’s medium format protocol.
There’s no metering whatsoever, nor is there through-the-lens (TTL) focusing, so there’s quite a bit of guess work involved which quite honestly, is half the fun for me. I shot a few test rolls in Burlington, and I was able to get them developed a few days ago. (Transferred from musingsviabones.com)
