Front Porch

 

This house has certainly seen better days, and nothing but worse days in its future. It sits along the approach to the Old Chain Of Rocks Bridge, which carried Rout 66 across the Mississippi River from 1929-1968. This place is very overgrown, hard to see even with the trees and bushes bare. ..

This is specifically located just east of the levee that runs along the Chain Of Rocks Canal.  Maybe 1/4 mile before the start of the bridge.  I wonder about the history of the place, Anybody know anything??

Mulberry Grove

 Mulberry Grove is about 60 miles from St. Louis, just off I-70. This storefront has certainly seen better days...

The Best Camera...

I've always liked the quote "the best camera is the one you have with you".   Which is not to say that you shouldn't strive to have decent equipment.  Rather, don't pass an opportunity just because you don't have your "best" camera with you.  

I had an appointment in Highland Illinois the other day, and we were a bit early.  So we decided to wander around the south side of town,  an area I'm not familiar with.  We found this cool old building, and my iPhone yielded a passable photo.

According to the internet, this the Highland Brewery (before prohibition) / Schott Brewing Co. (after prohibition), with the building dating to the late 1800's.  Closed as a brewery in 1947, and currently abandonded.

 

Engine House Ruin

Took a day trip to Elephant Rocks State Park, not quite 2 hrs from home. Cool place, if a bit crowded... One of the side trails led to this 1890's era Engine House, built to house the train locomotives that hauled granite from the quarry nearby to St. Louis and points beyond.

As much as I love my Fujifilm X-T3, sometimes the iPhone gets the better shot... This is one of those times.  The inherent wide angle worked well here.

From a Quilt Shops and Photo Ops outing.

Shoeless

Walking the bike trail recently, and I noticed this shoe off to the side, at the entrance to an overpass.
I wonder the story behind this single shoe, not exactly what one would wear on a hike....

Perhaps you can come up with a narrative? 

Full Serve

Old gas / service station, on the north west side of Paducah, KY.  I'm a sucker for old buildings, but that should be evident to regulars here.  This is the "13th Street Station", according to the sign (not in this photo), but that's generic enough that Google didn't find anything.

Here's a snip from Google Streetview, click to expand...

... Come on a Safari with Me.

I was wandering around Staunton, IL recently, while my wife visited the quilt shop, and came across this old Pontiac Safari.  Based on internet research, I think it's a 1956.

I knew that Pontiac had been around well before the 50's, but I've never really thought about their actual cars from the 50's.  I mean, everybody knows the Chevys, and Fords, it's easy to forget there other companies didn't just take the decade off!

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, a 50's era Pontiac Safari!

And yes, that's Safari, not Surfari, despite the title's reference to the old Beach Boys song!

Rust Never Sleeps

Old car, seen at a local storage place.  I old had my iPhone with me, and there was a puddle right in front of this car that was deeper than my shoe-soles...  so that made it a little had to get what I was looking for.  Maybe I can make a trip back, was helping a family member move some stuff into storage.

It's Chevy, pretty sure a '58?  I'm no expert, but some googling looks like 1958 was the only year with the dual headlights.  But I couldn't find any images with the sing thingie under the lights.  Nor the same hood ornament.  Any ID would be appreciated!

Processed on my iPhone, using the snapseed ap.

Here's a couple other alternate takes:

Wood River Distribution Center

This is one of those spots that I drive by all along.  Not daily, or even weekly, but probably 10-12 times a year.  And I always think I should take a photo.  But for years, I haven't.  Either the light is wrong, or the traffic is wrong, or there's not really a good angle with the fence and the retaining wall...  always something.

That's far too common for me.  Then one day, the spot will be gone.  A building torn down, a tank repainted...  whatever.  And I kick myself for my inaction.

WELL, the other day, fate conspired to action.  I was headed from Alton area to home, and decided to make a side trip.  For giggles, I plugged the address into my phone's gps to see what the best route would be...  And as I was making a turn south, it updated to direct me east.  It told me to U-turn, pretty much right in front of this tank.  And since I was right there, I couldn't come up with an excuse to not go the extra 400 feet or so to get the shot.  I pulled as far to the side of the side road as I could, opened my door and stood on the driver's seat to get high enough to manage this.

It'll never win any awards, but I'm satisfied with it.  And glad I made it happen.

I have no clue how old this tank is, but that version of the Amoco logo is apparently from 1970-2002.
I'm guessing it is not in use, given the general state of it.  Looking at Google Street View, I see a sign at the back corner of the area saying Arcadis.  Looking them up on line, I'm wondering if they're getting ready to "remediate" this spot.

From google maps:

Rough Around The Edges

I tend to be drawn to old and worn things.  Especially scenes where "nature" is taking back the land from humans.

This is not an abandoned place, but is one that could use a little TLC....

Grand

The marque for the Grand Theatre in Alton, IL. Built in 1920, closed since 1977.  As of last November, there was a news story that the building had a new owner, and would be renovated.  But nothing seems to be happening 6+ months later.

It would be cool if they can turn this into another version of the Wildey.

Raleigh Sandwich Shop

Just a little something I saw while walking in downtown Raleigh.  I originally processed it in color, then did a B&W version for over at Happenstance.  Shot on my iPhone, and processed using snapseed.  So not quite perfect...

Which do you like better??  I'm usually a sucker for B&W, but I think I like the color a little more.  Maybe with a bit of a decrease in overall saturation.... just a little bit.

- - - - -

Along the Backroads

Some scenes from recent drive around central Illinois.  A little windshield time, just for fun:

Old Billboard, outside Mason Illinois

- - -

Sitting Room...  St. James, Illinois...  

- - -

Elmo Theater, St. Elmo, Illinois

- - -

Old Grain Tower, Donnellson, Illinois

- - -

Triptych?

A Triptych is a series of 3 images, usually presented in a row.  But is there any reason they can't be presented in a vertical stack?

Presented for your consideration:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I don't know...  does it work??

This is an old abandoned delivery truck, found at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area.  I've shot this truck several times (like here and here), but it continues to fascinate me.  These three images are from a visit last weekend.  I was thinking it might work to do a triptych with them.  So I mocked this up to see if it grows on me.  Any opinions out there in internet land?

One problem:  With the middle photo square cropped, I would have to cut my own custom mat.  Which I can do, but is a bit more like work.

Chessie's Girl...

Pardon the bad pun reference to the best forgotten 1981 Rick Springfield song.  You know it is locked into your head now.  I know it is in mine. If not, try this link to seal the deal.

This is an oldie, from back in August 2018, that managed to fall through the cracks f my mind.  I actually have a lot of unprocessed images from that trip, maybe you'll see some more...

Taken in Staunton VA, seen while looking for a quilt shop w/ the wife.  We had a nice lunch rather nearby.

Adore

I happened to drive though Benld, IL yesterday, and noticed this faded entryway.  After living in SW Illinois for almost 30 years, this is the first time I've every happened to drive through Benld...

So I guess I can check that one off the list!

Truckin'

My first couple of thoughts on titles were bad puns on...  like "Trucked Up".  But I decided that was tacky and didn't go there...  Except, I suppose that I just went "there" here.  Oh well.

This is the old truck I found about a month ago, at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area.  Seems like I didn't post them here (shame on me!).  But you can check them out here, and here.  I revisted last weekend, a little earlier so there was a bit more light (and I knew where I was better).

Here's my favorite of the second series, others here, here and here.

So, I thought it would be interesting to do a "before and after" on this.  The's actually a fair amount of tweakage, though I hope it isn't too obvious. I wanted to make it "pop" more though.

Here's the SOOC (straight out of camera" version for comparison:

F O R D

Here's another before and after.  The after is at the bottom of the post.  But I did all this tweaking on my phone, and there's a rather lot of it.  And I didn't log any of it.  So I can't tell you what I did....  But it involved filters in snapseed (Drama, I think), and a significant amount of selective exposure (similar to burn and dodge)

(sorry)

Anyway....  We took a trip to Atlanta over Thanksgiving, saw some family....  all that good stuff.  During a visit in Mableton, GA (west side of Atlanta), I saw this old truck, and decided to shoot it. I used my iPhone, for simplicity.  I tried a couple of angles, but settled on this one.  It won out (barely) over a version from a lower angle, which took that building in the background out of view (the one you can see through the truck windows).  But I liked the better angle of the hood in this one.

Original, SOOC version:

Derelict Dinghy

From our recent visit to Cape Cod.  I saw this sad dinghy just a few dozen yards from the cheerful one in the Boats Afloat post.  There's another take on this scene posted over at Happenstance.

In the spirit of "The best camera is the one you have with you", this was shot with my iPhone.  Because that was all I had with me at the moment.  Which was poor planning on my part.  Fortunately, the iPhone 7 has a rather good camera, so I was able to manage.

I posted both images to a critique thread over at 365project, link here if you want to read the discussion.

South Vienna, OH

Yep, I do like old buildings!  Driving acroos Ohio, I stopped for gas, and instead of jumping right back on the highway, I headed south.  And found this within a couple of blocks.


Makes me happy.  I took a quick photo with my iPhone for the geotag.  Makes it so much easier to remember where I was.