Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Thanks. I rarely photograph flowers or wildlife, but I liked this scene. I actually was setting up to photograph the sunflowers before I even saw the bird! He just added something extra to the scene.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
The swimming pool at Centlivre Village Apartments in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The pool has been drained for several years, but has some water from recent rains.
Centlivre Village was built as a luxury apartment complex about 50 years ago; but since the 1990s it has fallen into disrepair, and has been almost completely abandoned for several years. Many of the buildings have boarded-up doors and broken windows, but a few tenants still live in a couple of them.
According to an article in The News-Sentinel, Centlivre Village was bought in March, 2016 by some local developers who plan to renovate and reopen the complex. When I photographed it in June, some work had already begun.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
A boarded-up entrance to one of the vacant buildings at Centlivre Village Apartments in Fort Wayne, Indiana. See my previous post for the story behind this place.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This crudely made political sign stands in the front yard of a house on the corner of Lincoln Highway (State Road 933) and Downey Avenue in Mishawaka, Indiana.
The hand-painted sign says: "Trump For President - Hillary For Prison 2016."
I photographed it Saturday evening.
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Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This graffiti is painted on the retaining wall of a railroad bridge over Ironwood Drive in South Bend, Indiana's fourth largest city.
It says: "Ammeria: Wake up or die!!! Seek the truth."
Take note of the spelling of "America." The cultural/political commentator who wrote this ought to concentrate on his own education before trying to bestow his or her wisdom upon the rest of us!
I photographed it last Saturday evening, as sunset approached.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I just learned that the graffiti in my last post has already been removed from the wall! I got there just in time; I photographed it 5 days ago.<br>
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
The huge American flag at Glenbrook Dodge Chrysler Jeep, photographed at nightfall. It is lighted by huge lights on the ground pointing up at it.
The flag, the largest in Fort Wayne, has flown over the car dealership on Coliseum Boulevard since 2004. It measures 50x80 feet, and flies from a 232 foot tall flagpole!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This soybean field is on US-33, just south of Goshen, in Elkart County, Indiana. I photographed it in the evening.
It is being watered by a 'center pivot irrigation' system. In this type of irrigation system, a long pipe on motorized wheels is attached to a pipe sticking out of the ground in the middle of the field. The structure rotates slowly around the central pipe, which supplies water from a well that is sprayed on the crops.
When I was young, few farmers in northern Indiana irrigated their fields. This part of the United States always got plenty of rain during the growing season. In recent years, there have been several droughts affecting the midwestern United States, and irrigation systems have become more common here.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Two old cast-iron bathtubs stacked up in front of a vacant storefront on the corner of Clark Street and Noe Street in the small town of Kimmell, Indiana.
I always loved old bathtubs like these that stood up on feet, unlike modern tubs that sit directly on the floor. My favorites were the ones whose feet were shaped like animal paws! A shame to see these examples rusting away.
I photographed them a few weeks ago.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Its been a week or so since I've added any new photographs. I've been out photographing a lot the last couple weeks, and am finally getting all of the new work ready to post!
Here is one I made a couple days ago.
This is the front door of a store on Wells Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The sign on the door says: "Do Not Give Money To Panhandlers." A lot of the stores on Wells Street have this sign posted on the doors or in the front windows.
Wells Street runs through one of the poorest neighborhoods in Fort Wayne, and is within walking distance of two homeless shelters. The business owners on Wells have been working for several years to fix up their buildings and have gotten the city to invest in repairing the infrastructure on the street. At the same time, the homeless have become more visible in Fort Wayne in recent years, as the economy has gotten worse.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This abandoned Taco Bell restaurant stands on US-33 on the southeastern edge of Elkhart, Indiana.
It is one of the old Mission-style brick Taco Bells that were built in the 1970s. The earliest ones, including this one, had restroom doors on the back of the building, like an old gas station. Customers had to go outside and walk to the back of the restaurant to use the restrooms! The earliest ones did not have drive-thru windows, either, though this one does. They also had a bell mounted on top of the building, but that has been removed from this one.
When I was a child, my parents went to Taco Bell occasionally. Back then, all of them in my hometown, Fort Wayne, were built like this one. All of them have since closed; replaced by newer building designs. I always liked the old mission-style Taco Bells. They look like a place that would serve Mexican food.
The new ones are ugly, generic fast-food buildings that look little different from a Burger King or a McDonald's. Both of those fast-food chains have also abandoned their old, distinctive architectural designs for generic postmodern ugliness.
JoeV
Thin Air, Bright Sun
Great photo, Chris. What amused me about the old Taco Bells was the phonetic pronunciation of basic food items on the overhead menu boards, basic words like taco and burrito. And they did this in New Mexico!
~Joe
~Joe
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
I don't remember the menus like that, but I was really young when we went to the old-style Taco Bells. That is funny that they'd need pronunciation info for Mexican food in Nuevo Mexico.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
This is the drive-thru window on the side of the abandoned Taco Bell restaurant on US-33 in Elkhart, Indiana.
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
One of the windows on the abandoned Taco Bell in Elkhart. This has probably been closed for many years, but all of the furniture is still in place!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Last night, as the last light faded, I noticed the subtle bands of color in the sky. I isolated the sky with a telephoto lens and made three photographs in succession as the colors rapidly changed, creating a triptych of abstract color field images.
helen.HH
To Light & Love ...
This is the Vertigo ride at the 2016 Elkhart County Fair in Goshen, Indiana.
The Vertigo is a tall tower with long spokes radiating out from the center. Riders sit in seats hanging from chains attached to the ends of the spokes. When it spins, the seats carrying the riders fly through the air as they are raised to the top of the tower.
This is similar to the Swing Carousels that I have photographed at other carnivals, but the Vertigo takes riders much higher into the air!
Do I Love this... Just Grand, kaleidescope candy !
I envy You and the photo opportunity of contry fairs
Atmospheric, nostalgic , Great Fun...Lucky You Chris
NYC can be quite boring at times...
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Thanks, Helen. We have a lot of fairs and carnivals around here, even in Fort Wayne, the 'big city' in northeast Indiana. When I lived in New Mexico 10 yrs ago, we had a lot of traveling carnivals come through Santa Fe, too. I've been doing these motion studies of carnival rides for years!
Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Another photograph of the vacant Centlivre Village Apartments in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This fire hydrant has a sign mounted on one of the hose connections that says it is "Out Of Service."
NY_Dan
Well-known
Keep up the great work!