Abandoned

As I have recently said, I love industrial "stuff" and abandoned stuff is even better. I was photographing in Genesee Valley Park in Rochester. I walked over a foot bridge and saw this railroad bridge in the distance, across the river. This particular bridge, now abandoned, carried a railroad line over the Erie Canal. I found my way over to the bridge, and fortunately, the chain link fences at both ends of the bridge had been ripped open, allowing me to cross the bridge and photograph it. I think this old "erector set" style of bridge construction is just beautiful.

The End of the Day

I was having a problem with the autofocus on my Nikon D2x, so got another camera and wanted to check that the new one was working properly. It was late in the day and I looked around for something to shoot - found this geranium right by the front steps. There wasn't much light, so used a slow shutter speed and opened the lens all the way. The photograph was still under-exposed, which is what makes this flower photograph so different in its appearance from any other flower photo I have ever done.

Four Chairs

Another photograph taken at the edge of Lake Ontario, about 20 minutes after the photo of the sunset and the driftwood log. It was really dark as I walked along, but the white chairs stood out against the water of the lake, and stopped me in my tracks. The camera was hand-held, and I made exposures at a relatively slow shutter speed, long after the sun had set, to get this shot.

The Industrial Landscape

I have always been fascinated by the industrial landscape. Something about the huge size of everything. I love industrial facilities that are in use, but buildings and structures that are abandoned really get my pulse going. This is the Bebee station of Rochester Gas & Electric, located alongside the former Platt Street Bridge, which is now a pedestrian walkway over the Genesee River, giving a wonderful view of this generating plant. I think this may be a subtle landscape, but I photographed it several times over two days, and I think there is something here.

72 North Union

72 North Union. A famous address, in Rochester, New York. A famous address in the world of photography. This was the home of Minor White in the years he lived in Rochester and taught at RIT. I was a student of Minor's in the school years 61-62 and 63-64. In addition, I did my senior thesis on Minor White and photographed him as an RIT teacher, publisher of Aperture magazine, writer, and at photographic workshops he taught in Boston and at St. Lawrence University. I photographed Minor at his home for my entire senior year and was very familiar with 72 North Union. Minor left here for MIT and Boston in 1965. While in Rochester last week, I went on a pilgrimage to visit the old RIT campus (half of which has been dynamited) and then to see if 72 North Union still exists. It does - it is the peaked roof of the building to the right, behind the facade of the Word of the Cross church that has been added to the front, joining two buildings. So I started photographing, and found this wonderful foreground object - the manhole cover, with the curving strips of road tar around it! The perfect foreground for a photograph in the manner of Minor White!

The Color of the Sky

I was driving along Lake Ontario after sunset, and noticed that the higher clouds were still illuminated by the orange light of the sun below the horizon. I thought it might be worth a look, so I stopped, grabbed the camera, and scrambled down a small embankment to the beach. Imagine my surprise to find this bleached driftwood log waiting just for me.

The White Oak

After I drove into Genesee valley Park the other day and parked the car, this gorgeous white oak is the first thing I saw, and I was immediately drawn to it. This is the first view of the tree, and my first composition. After taking this photo, I took a wider shot of the whole tree, and looked at it from other directions, just to see, but this is THE photo, it seems to me. I shot it in color, but think it is a stronger image in black and white.