On this day last year... 1/18/09

See this image larger here

I passed by this old abandoned factory a few times. It is right on Halsted at South 130th St.
I didn't really feel comfortable going in the factory by myself so I cruised around back and found
these other little buildings which seemed to be part of the factory but, about a hundred yards away.





It seems like it used to be a a tire factory.....perhaps.
This was another building that seemed to be attached, but it looked like it hadn't been used in a very long time. I came across a calander on the ground that was from 1957. Then I noticed there was a stack of order forms hanging on the wall. The date read 5-1-1963.
Suburban Materials Co-op., Inc. Producer of Ready Mix Sand, Stone, Gravel, and Cement.

On this day last year... 1/15/09

Grabbed some shots on my very cold drive to work. The sun was just right and the steam coming from the roof tops was remarkable.
This is my favorite image from this ride. I love how the sears tower is all by itself, making it seem tiny.



This is the St. Benedict's church on bell, which i pass by everyday because western is jammed every mornin'.

On this day last year... 1/13/09

I drove past this old house in Glenwood, IL.

While driving around for a bit trying to find out where I should park, I found this church with a big empty lot. To one side was farmland and the other was the woods.



I had to trek through the woods and cross this slippery tree bridge over a river.

The first thing I came across was the barn, which was home to a family of racoons. They must have enjoyed the warmth from the thousands of cow pelts on the inside. I had no idea what it was at first, until I examined closer. They looked like fashionable jackets thrown all over the inside of a barn.
There was a slaughter house located just to the north. I was nervous because I could hear them working, but it looked as if this place had not been used in years.
I would have taken a picture inside there, but I was anxious to walk through and on top of the pelts. Not to mention the racoon family living somewhere in there.....


I kept a lookout for fresh or semi-fresh footprints of which I saw none. That made me feel comfortable enough to keep on exploring.
I circled around the house just to make sure nobody was living here.




I walked up to the front door and peeked in...

The light was just right when I entered. Although I wish some of the windows weren't boarded up.










I started heading upstairs when I heard some rumbling around. Assuming the worst, (e.g. squatters, or vicious baby racoons) I got the hell out of there and and made my way back through the woods and over the tree bridge and back to my car.

Good times...

On this day last year... 1/10/09

The Ho-Chunk casino in Wisconsin.
The hotel hallway.

A view from the hotel window.

On this day last year... 1/07/09

Among all the ideas I have had for this blog I do believe I can keep up with this one. I am going to post image that were shot on the same date in 2009.

These were shot somewhere in Frankfort, IL during one of my explorations.


....So, enjoy...I guess.

2 pics

I recently had 2 photographs accepted as honorable mentions to RoHo Photo Gallery contest. The images will be available for purchase on the their site...

www.rohophoto.com

or more preferably through me directly.

My images will also be published in the the book "body of work".

I've always had an incredibly hard time evaluating and critiquing my own work and feel like this was a major step forward for me.


This was taken on the last night of Christine and my honeymoon on Kauai's Coconut Coast.




This was actually taken on our first anniversary trip to the Traverse City, Michigan area at Sleeping Bear Dunes N.P.

The place I breifly called home

I have begun to dig around in my old slides and negs looking for images I have'nt seen in years. I promised myself that every sunday will be the day for scanning old work.

When I was 18, almost 19, I ran away to Oregon to live with some very close friends. Ashland is a small town in the Southwestern part of the state, just east of Medford, south of Crater Lake, north of Mt. Shasta, and home of Southern Oregon University.
My Friends, Mike Peskac, Morgan Gavin, Eric Ten Broeck, and Brett Bielinski, had moved out there a few months earlier. It made me so jealous that I couldn't go with them on this great adventure, that after a few months and a series of unfortunate events (not to be described here) I hopped on an Amtrak train and was on my way.


[pictures taken from the train of somewhere in montana and the columbia river]

Now I'm not sure if I should make this chronological or not. Which I probably should otherwise it may be confusing, if in fact anyone in the world is actually reading this. I suppose it could'nt hurt to make this a recollection of my/our past. And hopefully get some stories out of these guys.
There were some good, shady, sad, lazy, burnt-out, stupid, hilarious, and idiotic things that happened out there.



The Rougue Valley looking NW towards Ashland
see it bigger here

Mt. Ashland

Mt.Shasta