Some new photos from Fort Wayne





A Polaroid snapshot of South Side Auto Sales, a used car lot on the corner of Bluffton Road and Fairoak Drive in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The building was once an auto repair garage. The car lot's owner has decorated it with large toy cars mounted on the roof.

Waynedale was once an independent small town. In 1957, it was annexed by the city of Fort Wayne, but it still looks like a small town and still retains a small town culture.

8-6-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a house on Wagner Street, just east of Monroe Street, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The flag flying from the side of the porch is the flag of the City of Fort Wayne! I've seen an increasing number of houses here flying the city's flag in the last year or so.

8-4-22
 
Lou Iaquinto said:
Thanks Chris.

I haven't been on this site for a while. Are you still using micro four thirds gear? I am thinking of giving it a try.

Take care,

Lou
Click to expand...



Lou,

Yes, I'm still using m4/3. This year I have been working on a project using Polaroid film, which is why you're seeing so much of it here, but I still use my m4/3 gear when I want a normal photograph.

I'm shooting with two Olympus bodies, both with 20mp sensors. The OM-D E-M1 mark II and the Pen F. I mostly use the E-M1mkII, as it balances better with the big pro lenses, and the controls are more ergonomic. The Pen F is a cool, tiny, beautiful camera; but like most 'amateur' cameras, it has a control layout that is not as fast to use. It is also not weather sealed and I like being able to go out in the rain. Olympus's Pro lenses are weather-sealed too.

I do have one very big piece of advice if you're thinking of buying some m4/3 gear: DO NOT BUY ANYTHING ONLINE. Buy from a local store that will let you test the lenses you buy in store before you pay for them. My experience is that both Olympus and Panasonic apply ZERO quality control to their products; especially their lenses. I generally reject eight out of every nine Olympus lenses I check, and some Panasonic lenses I have been completely unable to find a single example that was good. The ones I reject are all SEVERELY decentered. Keep in mind I am mostly looking at the high-end pro-level lenses, not the cheap lit lenses or hobbyist lenses.

I grew up using Olympus 35mm gear. I owned, at one time, nearly 50 Olympus OM-System lenses for their 35mm film SLRs. I never once saw a decentered Olympus OM-System lens. Today, sadly, it is not like that. I don't think its unique to Olympus or Panasonic, unfortunately. Most of the Voigtlander Leica-mount lenses I have tried were either decentered or had their rangefinder cams set inaccurately. I've even seen a few brand-new German-made Leica-M lenses that were decentered. We simply live in a time of unbridled corporate greed, where quality is regarded as an unnecessary business expense. I won't buy any lens from any manufacturer used anymore, nor will I buy anything new except at the local store I shot at. I've spent so much money there that they let me test all the copies of a lens I want that they have and I pick the good one. I simply don't have time to order lenses, and return them over and over until the online store gets lucky and sends me a usable copy. That can take MONTHS.
 








Polaroid photograph of one of the blockhouses at Historic Fort Wayne.

The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana's second largest city, started out as a wooden stockade fort built by the United States Army on the orders of General Anthony Wayne in 1794. At that time, the place where the Saint Joseph River and Saint Marys River join to form the Maumee River was the site of a Native American town called Kekionga. It was the capital of the Miami, the tribe that controlled most of northern Indiana and northwest Ohio.

General Wayne had just defeated a coalition of several tribes under Miami leadership at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in northwest Ohio, near the modern city of Maumee (a suburb of Toledo). White settlers began moving into northeast Indiana, and Kekionga became the town of Fort Wayne.

Historic Fort Wayne is a reconstruction of the third Fort Wayne, built in 1815. The fort was used only a few years; the army closed the fort and removed its garrison in 1819. The reconstructed fort was built in 1976 to celebrate the American Bicentennial, and was operated as a museum with employees and volunteers in period costumes. The museum closed in the early 1990s and the fort was left abandoned. In 2004 a new nonprofit group formed to restore the deteriorating structure. It is now open a couple weekends a month.

The fort stands on a piece of land between the Saint Marys River on the west and Spy Run Avenue on the east. The grassy embankment around the fort was not part of the original 1815 fort; it was added as part of the city's flood control system. In the first photo, you can see a bit of the modern city in the background, where Fort Wayne's tallest building, the 27 story Indiana-Michigan Power Center, is visible above the trees. Historic Fort Wayne is on the northern edge of the city's 'downtown' area.

8-4-22
 









Polaroid photograph of a man and woman adding food to a community food pantry on Hale Avenue, just east of Brooklyn Avenue, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was placed there by Saint Joseph Catholic Church, which is visible across the street. I made this photograph late in the evening right before sunset.

These metal cabinets allow those in need to take food from them, and those wanting to help the hungry can donate food by simply placing it in the cabinet. A number of them have appeared in Fort Wayne, placed by businesses, churches, and homeowners on their property. Many of them are painted with colorful designs.

The concept is similar to that of the Little Free Library boxes that allow people to give and take books.

8-4-22
 








Polaroid photographs of several pairs of old shoes hanging from the branches of a tree in the front yard of a trailer on grant street in the small town of Yoder, Indiana. There are also some toys, a plate with a smiley face painted on it, and an Indiana license plate that says "In God We Trust." I photographed this scene in the early morning.

There is a sign standing at the bottom of the tree that says: "Until You Have Walked In My Shoes."

8-6-22
 
Thank you for your thought-provoking story Chris. I appreciate it.
I am on the hunt for some new gear but the cameras I am interested in haven't been on the shelf in my local camera shop. I've had better luck at a well known store that sells used gear. Fortunately, they have a generous return policy.

I always enjoy your photos and stories of life in Fort Wayne.

Take care,
Lou
 
Pál_K said:
Beautiful results here.
Click to expand...


Thanks, here's another one of the Rose of Sharon flowers:






Polaroid photograph of two pink flowers on one of the Rose of Sharon bushes that grow in my front yard. I photographed them early in the morning.

My grandmother, Stella Westerfield, planted these many years ago. My son bought the house after my grandma died.

8-7-22
 




A Polaroid snapshot of a small storage shed that was destroyed during the derecho that tore across northeast Indiana on the night of June 13, 2022. A derecho is a linear storm with hurricane-force winds. The National Weather Service reported 98 mile per hour winds in my area!

The storm destroyed the entire shed, except for one wall that was left standing. Items stored on the shelves on that wall are still stowed where the owner had placed them before the storm hit! The shed is next to one of the mobile homes in the little trailer park across the street from my house in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

8-7-22
 




Polaroid photograph of a beautiful old house on the southwest corner of Berry Street and Van Buren Street in the West Central neighborhood in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana. The house is boarded up and a sign in front of it says that it is being renovated into five luxury condos.

The West Central neighborhood was a wealthy area of Fort Wayne at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, but by the time I was born many of the large homes had been divided into apartments and allowed to deteriorate. In the last few decades, upper-middle class professionals and wealthy people began buying them and restoring them to their original glory as single-family homes. I find it odd that this one is being turned into multi-unit housing. While the "Luxury Condos" will likely have stratospheric prices, it seems a regression for this house to end up that way.

8-8-22
 
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