Some new photos from Fort Wayne

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Red, White, & Gun

This basket of prizes for a carnival game caught my eye at the Three Rivers Festival at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. A lot of the games there were giving away plush roses, stuffed animals, and inflatables. This one had something I had not seen before: inflatable M16 rifles colored like the American flag!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Walking through the crowds last Sunday at the Three Rivers Festival at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, I caught sight of a tough-looking guy wearing a shirt that said "Satan's a Bitch. I love Jesus. Christ is my hero." Its common to see people in Indiana wearing religious shirts, but I have never seen one that denounced Satan as a bitch!

I spent some time talking to him, and he told me that has dedicated his life to Christ, and to fighting Satan. He told me about his videos on YouTube, too. His videos are definately not safe for work, school, or (especially) church, since he cusses like a sailor!

 

[jky]

Walking through the crowds last Sunday at the Three Rivers Festival at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, I caught sight of a tough-looking guy wearing a shirt that said "Satan's a Bitch. I love Jesus. Christ is my hero." Its common to see people in Indiana wearing religious shirts, but I have never seen one that denounced Satan as a bitch!

I spent some time talking to him, and he told me that has dedicated his life to Christ, and to fighting Satan. He told me about his videos on YouTube, too. His videos are definately not safe for work, school, or (especially) church, since he cusses like a sailor!

Nice portrait! Well done.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Nice portrait! Well done.

Thanks, jky. Definitely one of the most interesting people I have encountered this year.

 

[Keith]

Red, White, & Gun

This basket of prizes for a carnival game caught my eye at the Three Rivers Festival at Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. A lot of the games there were giving away plush roses, stuffed animals, and inflatables. This one had something I had not seen before: inflatable M16 rifles colored like the American flag!

Makes an inflatable love doll seem quite innocuous! 😛

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The Ring of Fire ride at sunset on the last evening of the 2013 Three Rivers Festival in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is a common ride in traveling carnivals. I photographed one of them in New Mexico six years before photographing this one in Indiana.

I have a few more photos to edit and post from the festival, then we'll be back to my usual projects.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This man was selling light-up hats, bubble guns, and other novelties at Headwaters Park Saturday night, the last evening of the 2013 Three Rivers Festival. I first noticed him because of his cyclops squid hat! When I asked if I could photograph him, he grabbed one of his bubble guns and made some bubbles.

 

[robert blu]

Thanks Chris for bringing us with your photos to this special Festival! Grazie!
robert

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

This is a new one from my archives. I shot it February 14, 2009. This little child-sized recliner chair say by the back door of an apartment in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Mary Mora doing word-find puzzles late at night in her bar in Cerrillos, New Mexico. This was one of her favorite ways to pass the time. She was 91 years old when I made this photograph in December, 2006. I have several more photos of Mary to finish scanning, and I have a portfolio of them, along with her story, on my website:
http://chriscrawfordphoto.com/chris-results.php?category=24

She is one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met. She is now 98 years old.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

When I was young, my family often went camping at Chain-O-Lakes State Park. To get there from our home in Fort Wayne, we had to pass though the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. We usually stopped at Egolf's IGA on US-33, which was the small town's grocery store, to buy sugar cookies from the store's bakery.

A couple of weeks before I made this photograph, my son and I drove up to Churubusco, which is about 15 miles northwest of Fort Wayne. On a whim, I decided to go to the IGA store to see if they still sold those sugar cookies. It had been 25 years since the last time my parents had bought them for me there, but they still sold them! I bought a bag of them for me, and a bag of chocolate chip cookies for Mack.

When we went back to buy more, I brought a camera and asked if I could photograph the bakery counter. They still had their Fourth of July decorations up! The decal at the bottom of the counter says "Celebrate the USA."

The two brown paper bags on the counter are the cookies we bought after I finished photographing the place yesterday afternoon.

 

[Michael Markey]

I remember your original post about this lady Chris.
Sad to hear that age is catching up with her ... but what a good age.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I remember your original post about this lady Chris.
Sad to hear that age is catching up with her ... but what a good age.

Thanks, Michael. She is 98 years old now. I saw her again a couple years ago, in 2011, but haven't been able to visit New Mexico since then. Hopefully, I'll find the money for another trip before she leaves us.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Yesterday afternoon, I photographed this little house on Mill Street in the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. Lots of houses in Indiana, especially in small towns, fly the American flag. Most only have one!

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Here is another one from Tuesday afternoon in Churubusco, Indiana. This pallet was sitting next to a plumbing and well-drilling company on US-33.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

These women were using "Fireworks Glasses" to watch the Fourth of July fireworks at Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).

The glasses, mounted in cardboard frames printed with the American flag, work like prisms to make light sources appear to glow with a rainbow of color. I don't understand the point of it; the fireworks are beautiful, and don't need enhancement.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I saw this little boy walking his tiny dog on Fort Wayne's working class west side while I was driving around the city looking for things to photograph on the Fourth of July. I told him that my cat was twice the size of his Chihuahua!

 

[jsrockit]

Yesterday afternoon, I photographed this little house on Mill Street in the small town of Churubusco, Indiana. Lots of houses in Indiana, especially in small towns, fly the American flag. Most only have one!

Chris, it's funny because I photograph the american flags in NYC and you wouldn't believe how many people have multiple flags on their homes or apartments. I thought it was more of a rural / suburban thing, but nope.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

Chris, it's funny because I photograph the american flags in NYC and you wouldn't believe how many people have multiple flags on their homes or apartments. I thought it was more of a rural / suburban thing, but nope.

I see a lot of houses in Indiana with multiple flags, but the ones who do that usually have several small ones, instead of having two full-size flags like this house has.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

When I pointed my camera at this little girl, she got shy and hid behind the bottle she was clutching. Her father was pulling her in a wagon through the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

This is from my backlog of film from years past that I am getting scanned and edited. I shot it in September, 2009. It was one of the first photos I ever made with a Leica!