Dreams and Disappointment.

I had the opportunity to do something today that I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time- shoot an abandoned amusement park. I loaded up my gear and headed out with a friend to shoot the mostly demolished Chippewa Lake Park in Chippewa, Ohio.

First off, it was a good experience. I enjoyed it and would go back if I had the chance. Access was easy enough, and we didn’t see any other cars driving by or any people walking past. Once we were in we were pretty well left alone. The grounds were relatively easy to navigate, considering it was so overgrown and covered in snow and ice.

The remnants of the ticket booth, hidden behind a fence adorned with "NO TRESPASSING" signs.

I had been spending some time researching the park, so I knew that parts of it had been demolished. This included the chair swing, the rollercoaster, the hot dog stand, and several other small structures. I knew that there wasn’t much left, but it was still a bit of a disappointment when we finally arrived. After an hour long drive, we spent about a half of an hour inside the park shooting. All that remained were the ticket booth, Ferris wheel, and “The Bug” tumbler ride. There were several other small structures on the south end of the park, but as we were entering we saw some dogs running around inside the fence so we avoided that side. We didn’t see very much that way anyways, but I can’t help but wonder if we missed anything.

The rusty Ferris wheel stands with a tree growing through it. "The Bug" tumbler ride track lies at its feet.

A present-day view of the park. A roller coaster once stood at the left of the photo. The remnants of the ticket booth stand on the right side, and the ballroom would have stood on the hill behind it.

Besides my disappointment in the lack of photographic material, I have several grievances. Firstly, I was pretty bummed that it was such a dark, dreary morning. I guess I should come to expect that in Ohio in the winter (even though it got sunny after we left). This made for a pretty lame contrast of colors, and this didn’t play well into my new-found addiction to HDR photography.

Secondly, as I said earlier, we saw a few dogs running around inside of the park as we were entering. We decided to try and be quick about our work, just in case there were security guards posted inside of the park. As a result of this, as I’m editing my photos, I’m constantly thinking about how I could’ve made my shots better, or shots that I should have taken that I didn’t because of our increased pace. For instance, in the photo of The Bug’s carts below, I wish I had climbed the old, decrepit stairs and shot the benches or seats inside of the carts. We left a lot of the park unexplored as well, also as a result of our pace.

The Bug's carts gather rust on the track.

Otherwise, I guess there really isn’t much else to say about the experience. It was definitely a treat. I’m still slowly editing photos, but as I finish them you can find them on my Flickr page.

Urbex.

So, I haven’t updated in about nine months. Since then, I’ve completely upgraded my gear. I traded my T1i for a 50D with the kit 28-135mm f/3.5 lens. I also got a Bower SF290 hot shoe flash, which has been a huge step-up from my ancient Kodak flash. All of the gear is a huge improvement. My T1i can’t hold a flame to the noise reduction by the 50D. The physical size and weight are all comfortable, and the image quality is great.

So, with all of this new gear, what have I been doing with it? Well, a lot. For starters, I recently got a new job. I’m a part-time photographer for the Ashland Times-Gazette now. They have me doing a lot of high school sports, but that’s about it. I’m still shooting for the university, but that’s kind of taken a back seat. Now I’m just counting down the days until graduation in May.

On the hobby side of my life, I’ve been doing a lot of urbex and cityscapes. Urbex, commonly known as Urban Exploration, building hacking (which sounds badass), or trespassing, is basically the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities such as warehouses, factories, hospitals, amusement parks, hotels, and other inactive urban sites.

It’s a rush- knowing that you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be, being alone in such a huge site. Knowing that you’re standing where, years before, people worked and provided, and that now it stands in decay. Walls where paint is peeling and collapsed ceilings once provided shelter and a place of work. It’s like a drug- the feeling just can’t be described and the high can’t be gained any other way. Nothing holds a candle to it.

Unfortunately, being in small-town Ohio, there’s really not a lot of it going on around here. I’ve been looking around Flickr and other websites, and it seems there is a large community of Urban Explorers all over the state- and the world.

Front entryway of a building in Ashland, Ohio.

Chalkboards in an old school building.

The front of an abandoned motel in Ruggles, Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides just urbex, I’ve been doing a lot of night-time cityscapes. And by that, I mean I’ve only been able to do one good set this year. I don’t know what it is, but the lights and the people make me feel…. I can’t really describe it. But it’s good. Being able to get lost in the crowds, ducking from building to building, roaming the streets of the city… It’s what young people should be doing, right? Well, maybe not. But it’s what I like to do.

Again, unfortunately, being from small-town Ohio, it’s not too exciting. Our town has a minimal bar scene, no tall skyscrapers or other cool buildings, and only about three streets to wander, most of which lead to dead ends or other non-exciting things.

Cleveland has a lot of their buildings illuminated for Christmas, and from what I’ve seen it’s pretty cool. I want to go up and shoot it, but unfortunately I haven’t had the time. I’m sure Columbus probably has some cool stuff going on this time of year too.

Downtown Ashland, Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that’s all I’ve got tonight. Talk to you all again in nine months. As always, be sure to follow me on Twitter (brianmwells) or check out my Flickr page.

Landoll’s

I’m attempting to get more information about this building, but as of now I don’t have much.

Landoll’s is located in downtown Ashland, OH. I’ve spent tons of time photographing outside of it, but never inside.

Landoll's, Fall 2008

A few friends and I went down last Friday to attempt to shoot some more night shots, and we noticed that one of the sliding doors was busted and the door behind it was cracked open. Just for kicks and giggles, we checked the door and it flew open. Armed with my camera, a videocamera, and two dying flashlights, we began our exploration.

The basement (where we entered) was full of big, empty spaces. The floor was basic concrete. Support beams lined the rooms. The air was ridiculously cold.

My friend Adam, entering the first boiler room.

There were several boiler type rooms, each one showing its own decay.

Boiler Room

The above picture was of the first boiler room we entered. I shot a few other photos while in the room, but none came out.

Outside of the building (next to the door we entered) were four large silos. After exploring the basement a bit more, we found a room containing the bottom of the four silos.

Silo

We also found a list of decontamination dates. The dates ranged from 1971 to 1976.

List

We didn’t spend much more time in the building due to the diminishing life of our flashlights. We made a very quick sweep of the first floor, then left.

We went back the next day, but I’ll post those photos tomorrow. The entire set can be found at this link.

Excursions

Well, I don’t have a lot of cool pictures to post tonight. Actually, that’s a load of crap…. I just don’t feel like posting any, especially since my Flickr box on the side is so convenient.

I’ve been using my Macbook A1181 for about two and a half years. It’s served me great, with the exception of a few hard drive crashes due to multiple partitions and triple-booting Windows Vista, OSX and Ubuntu Linux.

A few months ago, my keyboard on my Macbook died. I’ve been using a USB keyboard, but thanks to the guys over at iFixit.com and their tutorial on replacing the Macbook’s upper case, I learned how much easier it’d be to spend about $50 and replace it myself instead of sending it in to Apple and being out of my laptop for a week and being down $400.

My first keyboard came, and the installation went smoothly. Once I booted it up and tried to type, however, I noticed it was typing in random characters, looking as if my alt key was being held down. I did some troubleshooting, but had no success. I’ve ordered a new one that should be here in a few days- I’ll post the pics up after I do the install.

Recent.

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve updated- that’s because I haven’t had much of a chance to shoot anything except for sporting events lately.

I picked up a few pet lizards a few weeks ago. They’re pretty fun to photograph.

Eggo

Rosie

Oscar

The first one is grainy and out of focus. I used the auto/no-flash setting on my 500D, with the kit lens. If I wasn’t afraid of him moving on me, I would’ve used the manual focus. The auto-focus on the lens was focusing through glass, which didn’t help the clarity at all. The second one was done inside of the tank last night, using the built-in flash. The third one was done in a hurry with my auto-focus, and built-in flash.

I had to shoot wrestling pictures a few days ago for work… I used my ancient Kodak flash, teamed with my 100-300mm lens on my 500D body. For being so inexperienced with flashes, I think they came out decent.

Ashland University Wrestling

Self-Portraits and Still Life

Two things I have a new found appreciation for in the photographic world: Self-portraits and still lifes.

Anyone who’s been following my Flickr would know what I’ve started: A 365 day project. One picture of myself every day for 365 days. No two pictures can be the same, although once every other week or so I’m trying to do a regular, serious, legit portrait so I can see a real personal change in myself over the next year. I want to see how much I change- size, hair style, facial features, anything.

It’s getting hard. I finished my 26th day today, and I’m really running out of ideas. I’ve never been a photographic guy, and trying to come up with a different facial expression for 365 days is a challenge!

12-15-2009, Day 26

Something else I really want to start doing more of: Still life. Just random assortments of objects on desks, or pieces of furniture, or anything. I took one today that I put on my site, and I took a few more I’m probably going to put up soon. They’re just fun… An image to capture a second of life. That second, frozen forever. It’s awesome.

Blackberry on notebook

Christmas – Not For The Faint Of Heart.

Well, Christmas is officially here, be it to your liking or your dismay.

Personally, I vote for the latter. Christmas is far from what it originally was- a holiday full of joy and festivities to celebrate the birth of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Everyone was to be nice and ‘jolly’, and to keep kids in line the greeting card companies created a big man in a red suit with a beard who breaks into your house at night, stealing milk and cookies and leaving you presents if you’ve been nice. A white sheet of snow would cover the ground and the air would be cold, giving you a reason to sit around the fire with your friends and family and roast chestnuts.

Well, nowadays, everyone is an asshole to everyone, the season is full of stress and anger, and courtesy of Al Gore, we don’t even have snow anymore. Department stores make outrageous sales to scrape in as much money as they can as gullible saps spend money on people they don’t care about, while at the same time suicide and crime rates are at a yearly high. Maybe you’ll spend the holiday with your family, maybe you won’t. If you choose not to, you can blame it on expensive airline tickets, a climaxing gas price, or the inability to raise the money to fix your car.

Christmas tree sales, however, have increased from 2000 to 2008, with a high between 2006 and 2007. At least one market is booming this time of year, which is ironic despite the efforts to save the environment and ‘be green’!

So, celebrate it or not, Merry Christmas. Try to find some joy in these hard times, and at least make the effort to spend it with those you love.

A Brief Insight Into The Male Perspective On Engagements

My site jumped from the normal 150ish hits per day, to about 630 in one day, then to over 2500 hits the day after that! While the numbers are dropping due to no recent updates, it’s still exciting!

I took the pictures of my fiance down the other day to watermark them, which is why they aren’t showing in the previous post. The entire set can be found here. The set was a lot of fun to shoot, and I’m more than happy to see the results.

Fiance Portrait

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. It’s always a crazy time at my house, and this year is already looking to be even crazier than past years have been.

A Brief Insight Into The Male Perspective On Engagements

FX is having a “That 70′s Show” marathon right now, and I’ve forgotten how amusing this show is. They just played the episode where Donna and Eric got engaged, and it’s made me rethink how I did my own proposal- not only that, but how cliched the whole thing is.

For starters, where does it say that there has to be a ring involved? It’s a symbol, yes, but where is it written that it has to be a ring? Why not a necklace, or… a rock? Maybe the guy should try to tattoo his name into the back of her neck, so that way not only does everyone know she’s taken, but they will know his name and can base off of that if he’s a mean motherfucker you wouldn’t want to mess with or not.

I don’t think anyone except for men who’ve been through that really understand the pressures. First off, picking out the ring. It has to be perfect. It has to be exactly what she wants- that’s a lot of pressure. Secondly, asking the parents. It’s a tradition that’s fading out of our culture, but it still shows respect for the girl and her family. When I did it, I was hoping to ask her father alone, but her mother was there as well. It was nice to see her cry, but it added that much more pressure to have her there.

Then, there’s the proposal itself. How are you going to do it? Where are you going to do it? When? What are you going to say? What if something goes wrong? I had it all planned out, and it was going to be great. I was sure she would cry- at the top of a ferris wheel at a county fair at night. Well, during the day we’d gotten food poisoning, it had rained, and when we finally made it to the fair, there was no ferris wheel. So, what now? I winged it in a parking lot at an Applebee’s (we started dating in a parking lot, and our first date was at an Applebee’s). I didn’t give the big speech I’d thought of, and she didn’t cry. But I still at least had enough to work with that it went over well; a lot better than it could’ve.

Holiday Pictures

Anyways, it’s officially the holiday season. Here’s a few random pictures to spread the feeling.

Cat eating Thanksgiving Dinner

2009-11-22, Ashland University Choir Concert

 

More portraits.

My fiance and I went for a walk back in the woods tonight, and she agreed to let me take a few pictures to test the 500D. These were all taken on an auto setting. I didn’t use a tripod, which kind of explains the slight amount of blur in some pictures.

Fiance 1

Fiance 2

Fiance 3

Fiance 4

500D Test-shots

I finally upgraded from my 350D last night. I picked up a Canon T1i (500D) last night for about $900 with a super nice bag from Best Buy. I haven’t gotten to shoot a lot with it yet, but I can’t say that I’m not happy with the results.

Stump

Chair

Cat