Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

That's an awesome door. The local water tower has a little blockhouse built alongside for tower access, which somehow isn't as interesting.

Ever since I as a kid I've been fascinated by "mystery doors" in odd places. The highway sound barrier walls around here (Maryland) usually have doors set in them every few miles. Some have doorknobs or handles, some don't. Are they shortcuts for firefighters and such to get to the other side? Were they used during construction and then sealed? Many are nearly hidden in undisturbed layers of creeper vines and ivy, forgotten, waiting patiently for someone to come walk through them again, someday.

That kind of thing is interesting to me, too. Another thing, similar to water towers, that has a door on the bottom of a tall shaft is wind turbines. Interestingly, all of them I have seen have the door elevated about 4-5 feet off the ground, with a small metal stairway (not a ladder, an actual stairway) to reach it! I wonder if there's a technical reason for that.

Chris, I am enjoying your Photos from Fort Wayne thread, keep them coming!

Thanks. I've been working on this project for nearly 30 years now!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Hank is the store cat, working hard at his usual duty station at Doc's Do It Best Hardware in the small town of Albion, Indiana. He spends his time sleeping on this stack of boxes near the back of the store, when he isn't hounding the employees for food or giving unfriendly looks to the customers.

A few minutes before I made this photograph, I photographed one of the store's employees giving him some kitty treats. After he ate the treats, he let me pet him for a little bit. When he realized that I had no more treats to give, he walked away, laid down on the floor, and stared at me for a bit before going back to 'work' on the boxes of well pumps!

This is the last of the three photographs that I made of Hank that day.

9-9-23

 

[Pál_K]

... he let me pet him for a little bit. When he realized that I had no more treats to give, he walked away, laid down on the floor, and stared at me for a bit ...

You're getting the feline version of the "Nobody Rides For Free" mantra.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

You're getting the feline version of the "Nobody Rides For Free" mantra.

Yep. My parents had a big orange Maine Coon named Simba whose friendship was always up for auction. If he was sitting on your lap, purring happily, he would instantly forget you existed if someone else even hinted that they might feed him. My son and I used to get him to run back and forth between us by making alternating food offers. After a few times, Simba would realize we were screwing with him; then he'd walk over to my parents' dog and attack her out of spite! He didn't bite us because in the future one of us might have food; so he'd take it out on the poor dog. They had a 130lb Great Pyrenees who was scared to death of that cat. Simba bullied her relentlessly.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Typical cat. This is why we love them!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A number of small birds perching and flying around on the power lines and utility pole in the front corner of my yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was early in the morning, not long after sunrise.

10-7-23

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A large propane tank with an American flag painted on the side and happy faces painted on the tank's rounded ends. This is next to a farmhouse on State Road 8, east of County Road 600E, in rural Noble County, Indiana.

Because gas utilities don't serve many areas outside of cities and towns, a lot of houses in rural Indiana have big propane tanks that provide fuel for cooking and heating. They contract with a propane company to refill them periodically.

9-9-23

 

[Pál_K]

A large propane tank with an American flag painted on the side and happy faces painted on the tank's rounded ends. This is next to a farmhouse on State Road 8, east of County Road 600E, in rural Noble County, Indiana.

Because gas utilities don't serve many areas outside of cities and towns, a lot of houses in rural Indiana have big propane tanks that provide fuel for cooking and heating. They contract with a propane company to refill them periodically.

9-9-23

To me this is a charming photo. It makes me wonder who painted it - perhaps it was a family endeavor? Perhaps children painted the stars, which I find charming since they're obviously done by hand and without a stencil. Part of the charm is the imperfection - if it really is imperfection, because who is to say only the geometrically aligned pattern of the official flag is perfect when being presented as art? The stars represent the states and all the states are different, some are closer to others (culturally), so as artwork such a pattern of stars is perfectly good.

Anyway, not to overthink it, it's cool they created this artwork to share and you captured it.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

To me this is a charming photo. It makes me wonder who painted it - perhaps it was a family endeavor? Perhaps children painted the stars, which I find charming since they're obviously done by hand and without a stencil. Part of the charm is the imperfection - if it really is imperfection, because who is to say only the geometrically aligned pattern of the official flag is perfect when being presented as art? The stars represent the states and all the states are different, some are closer to others (culturally), so as artwork such a pattern of stars is perfectly good.

Anyway, not to overthink it, it's cool they created this artwork to share and you captured it.

I assumed the guy who owned it painted it, but I didn't ask him. This kind of folk art is common in Indiana, people painting the flag on things like fuel tanks, barns, benches and porch swings, fences. The flags are rarely 'perfect.' The number and placement of the stars is usually wrong. There are 50 of them so it takes time to paint them all; most people don't count them!

 

[Retro-Grouch]

There's a similar tank near me, painted pink to look like a pig: goofy Porky Pig face on one end, curlicue tail on the other. I've been meaning to shoot it for some time; your photo has given me incentive to get out and do it!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

An abstract photograph of the sky on an autumn morning, shortly after sunrise. I was looking west from the parking lot of the McDonald's restaurant on the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and South Bend Drive in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

10-15-22

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A steel pole barn decorated for fall, with "Fall Is Proof Change Is Good" spelled out on the side of it. Located on Dickie Road, just north of Aboite Center Road, on the west side of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

This part of the city was once very rural, but in the last 30 years it has been filled up with housing developments. It became part of Fort Wayne in 2006, when the city annexed most of Aboite Township.


9-6-23

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The tiny post office on the corner of Washington Street and Market Street in the small town of Poneto, Indiana. Several people stopped to pick up mail while I was there, most of them parking in front of the grain silos on Market Street, like the old woman getting into her old Ford Crown Victoria in this photograph.

Poneto is a very small town; the 2020 census showed a population of 173 people! The U.S. Postal Service does not deliver mail to the houses and businesses in such tiny communities. Residents have to go to the post office to pick up their mail each day.

9-29-23

This, and the photo of the barn in my last post, were the first new work in a long time that I have actually shot with a rangefinder camera. Almost everything I have done in the last couple of years has been digital. These were made with a Leica M4-2 on Kodak Portra 400.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

The look you're getting with film really seems to suit this subject matter. Of course, your digital work is great, too!

 

[Pál_K]

A good one. I love photos like that.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My parents have had several praying mantises in the bushes in their front yard this year, but every time I visited, they were gone. My dad called me a little bit ago and told me that one was back in their yard again, so I rushed over and photographed it!

It would not have survived in my yard; my meanass cat would have eaten it!

 

[Pál_K]

A cute little guy!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A snapshot that I made on Wells Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As a long line of cars waited for the traffic light at the intersection of Wells Street and Spring Street to turn green, a little white dog stuck his head out the window of a Fiat 500L and looked at me! This was the only one that I got of him before he looked away, and then disappeared back into the car.

9-8-23

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Mailboxes on the side of the little post office on the corner of Washington Street and Market Street in the small town of Poneto, Indiana.

Poneto is a very small town; the 2020 census showed a population of 173 people! The U.S. Postal Service does not deliver mail to the houses and businesses in such tiny communities. Residents have to go to the post office to pick up their mail from these PO boxes each day.

9-29-23

 

[Pál_K]

Nice. That place has character and is a treasure trove of good photo opportunities.