I'm back!

It has been a crazy past few months. Between work and family I am still about three months behind in getting caught up with the images I have been making. I'll try to get on here more regularly.

Here is a photo I took at the Wine and Arts Festival last weekend in Palestine, Illinois. Palestine is an interesting little town. Despite what Kaskaskia claims, Palestine is the oldest settlement in Illinois. The Main Street is now home to several artists.

Three for Helio

I know... this is no prize-winning photo.

I shot this photo of Helio Castroneves from my seat during the closing laps of this year's Indianapolis 500. He is probably cruising along close to 220 mph. I was near the top of the South Vista and had a great view of the track including all of turns 1 and 2 and the short chute connecting them.

This was my 30th Indy 500. For 23 years I was "on the other side of the fence" as a photographer, usually shooting at the exit of turn 1 right next to the emergency vehicle entrance road. After being so close to the teams, drivers and cars for all those years it is rather difficult for me to sit in the stands but there is something about that place that keeps drawing me back. It is much more than very fast cars going in circles.

If you have never been to the race you probably can't understand that.

If you have been there, then you get it.

Grain Bins near Snyder

For some reason the textures, shapes and simplicity of color of these grain bins caught my eye. This is along Illinois Route 1 north of West Union near a little place known as Snyder.

After the Storm

A massive hail and wind storm hit the small town I live in shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, 2009. The ground was white with hail after the storm. The tops of several trees were snapped off and all trees were stripped of most of their leaves. About 40 minutes after the storm while I was taking pictures of damage I caught this image as the sun broke from behind the clouds and fog caused by the hail on the ground arose from the fields.

Chicago River #3

Finally, I am back to the blog. Life has been exceedingly busy the past few weeks and I simply have not had time to keep this current. I'll try to prevent that from happening in the future.

This is a photo of East Wacker Drive in Chicago taken from near the northwest corner of the Michigan Avenue Bridge. The building on the left, which looks like a short building with a taller and skinnier building behind it, is located at 35 East Wacker. It was originally known as the "Jeweler's Building." At 523 feet tall, it was the tallest building outside New York City when it was built in 1927. When it opened it housed parking garages on the second through 22nd floors and included a 22-story car lift that allowed delivery vehicles to ride up to the jewelery merchants to make secure transfers.

Next to it is the Unitrin Office Building. This 525-foot tall, 41-floor building was completed in 1962 for the United Insurance Company.

Source: Google Earth

Pem Hall

This is Pemberton Hall, a women's dorm on the campus of Eastern Illinois University. When completed in 1909 it became the first women's resident hall in the State of Illinois. This historic building is named in honor of State Senator Stanton C. Pemberton  who was influential in securing funding for construction of the building.

About 215 women, and one ghost named Mary, live in Pem. Mary is a friendly spirit who overlooks the safety of the hall's residents.

Sunset Number Nine. Number Nine. Number Nine.

One of my favorite things to do after a hectic day at work is to sit on the deck, read a good book and watch the sun  set. And due to the location of our home I have plenty of opportunities to do this. Step out of my back yard and you are in the neighbor's field. It was corn last year which means we have a built-in natural privacy fence every other year. This year it will be soybeans.

Cleone Barn # 8

This is a second old barn on a farm at Cleone, Ill. Earlier I posted another photo from this old farmstead. I like how the evening sun gives a warm, but fading glow to the old, weathered oak timbers... the low angle of the light accentuating  the texture of the wood and also casting deep shadows into the building. I wonder what this farm was like in its day.

Flintlocks

Flintlock rifles on display at Fort Lamotte at Palestine, IL, during Fort Lamotte Days April 26, 2009. The original fort was built about 1812. Palestine is the oldest town in Illinois and its residents are very aware of their heritage. The fort has been reconstructed, based on information and written accounts from the 1812 time frame. This was the first year for "Fort Lamotte Days," an event organizers hope to hold annually. 

McAfee Gymnasium #1

This beautiful art-deco building is McAfee Gymnasium on the Eastern Illinois University campus in Charleston, IL. I'll post more about the history of McAfee later today when I have more time.

Luscombe Perfection

This 1948 Luscombe 8F S# 6126 was owned by Jerry & Delores Adkisson, Tuscola, Illinois, when I made this image on Aug. 24, 2003, at the Luscombe Fly In at Coles County Municipal Airport near Mattoon, Illinois. The entire surface of this plane was a mirror.

Don Luscombe founded the Luscombe Aircraft Company in 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, after working for Monocoupe. He felt that the fabric-covered metal tube airframe was not the way to go and set out to design an all metal airplane of monocoque construction. This resulted in the Luscombe Model 1, commonly known as the Luscombe Phantom. It was a high-wing, two-place monoplane of all-metal construction, except for the fabric-covered wings. The Phantom was difficult to land (a ground loop waiting to happen), and was never a financial success.

After a few years operating in Trenton, New Jersey, the Luscombe Aircraft Corporation was re-formed as a New Jersey company in 1937. Production on the Luscombe Model 8 began in 1938. Eventually, production was moved to Dallas, Texas. Don had lost control of the company years earlier. In 1949 the company ceased production and declared bankruptcy.

Recital Hall Before and After

Today I thought I would give you another look inside the Doudna Fine Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University. The top photo was taken on Nov. 16, 2007, during construction in the recital hall. This space was the main stage theatre in the "old" building. The bottom photo, taken on Sept. 9, 2008,  shows the space as it now appears.

County Fair #1

I took this photo in 2005 at the Coles County Fair in Charleston, Illinois. The fairgrounds has a rich history. This county fair was first held in 1854 and is the oldest continuing county fair in Illinois. On September 18, 1858 this was the site of the fourth of seven Lincoln-Douglas Debates. A crowd estimated at more than 10,000 attended this debate and would have filled the area seen in this photo. The debaters would have been on a platform a few yard behind where I was when I made this image. A debate museum is now on the fairgrounds. Also, William Jennings Bryant spoke at Chautauquas here and evangelist Billy Sunday once preached on the grounds.

This photo has long been a favorite of mine due to the juxtaposition of the blurred Ferris wheel and stationary merry-go-round.

Say cheeeeeeeese!!!

Every July the Twin Lakes Car Club at Paris hosts a cruise-in. This photo was made at the 2005 cruise-in. When viewed at an eye-to-headlight angle this freshly restored 1957 Corvette reminded me of a kid with braces grinning from ear to ear. Or should it be headlight to headlight?

The Greenhouse

It has been a crazy week and I have not had an opportunity to update the blog until this evening. Today's pic is titled "The Greenhouse." It is a view of an SNJ which was an advanced Navy/Marine training aircraft during WW II. The photo's title is taken from the jargon used to describe the huge canopy on this airplane. The Army version of the SNJ was the AT-6. I made this photo on 4 October 2008 at Terre Haute, Indiana, Hulman Field during the Victory Days gathering of WWII re-enactors and hardware.

Michigan Avenue #1

It seems like I am in Chicago two or three times a year for meetings and conferences. As the old saying goes, it is a nice place to visit, but I would not want to live there. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Chicago but this old farm kid needs to see some wide open spaces and Lincoln Park does not qualify as wide open space in my dictionary.

One thing that I have always found curious about Chicago is how quickly Michigan Avenue's "Magnificent Mile" becomes nearly deserted  after about 9 p.m. From the early morning until 5ish the sidewalks are jammed with people going to work, shoppers and tourists. From 5-8 p.m. the tourists and shoppers are still jamming the sidewalks and then suddenly they are nearly all gone. This is a harsh contrast to New York City, which has crowded sidewalks round the clock. But then, NYC is billed as "The City that Never Sleeps."

Andy was here...

I decided to have a little fun today with the PhotoBooth application on my Mac.

Stairway to Nowhere

This stairway graces the west side of the row of buildings on the south side of the town square in Oakland, Ill. The ornate ironwork is certainly something lacking in today's modern buildings. Much of this town is an architectural step back into times past.

Spring in Illinois... gotta love it... NOT!

At the risk of being cliche´-ish with today's photos... It was in the 60's on Saturday, poured rain all day Sunday and this morning we in Central Illinois wake up to this. Enough of the snow already! I guess I should not complain. This is better than the foot of snow parts of the Midwest received in the last 24 hours.

Cleone Barn No. 7

Cleone, Ill. is one of those places that has all but vanished. It is located in Clark County north of Martinsville. All that remains of it are a couple of houses and two old barns. This barn, owned by Dan Cribelar, is one of them. It is on one of the possible roads I can take when I go to visit family in Crawford County. I have driven by this old place dozens of times but never really noticed it until Friday (April 3) evening when driving to West Union to meet family for supper at a place called the Silvermoon. The light was perfect but I did not have time to stop and shoot pics.

I looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was 6:11. The next evening I arrived at the barn at 6:05. The light was just as good and I had some clouds to work with that were not present the evening before. I shot a few from the road then went looking for the owner. A farmer working nearby pointed across a field and said, "he lives over there." So, I drove "over there," introduced myself and was given permission to take some photos from the property.

The trip was well worth it. I came home with ten keepers from this old barn, and a few more from another.

Chinook Flyby

A US Army CH-47 "Chinook" makes a flyby at an Eastern Illinois University football game on Oct. 20, 2007.

I'll never forget an encounter with a Chinook pilot when I was a student pilot making my last solo cross country flight before I took my private pilot check ride in 1986. I had flown from Robinson, Ill. to Mount Vernon. There was a Chinook on the ramp when I landed at Mount Vernon. After a short break I went to the pilot's lounge to phone my flight plan to the FAA. The Chinook pilot was on the phone filing his flight plan. Flight plans are fairly simple forms. They contain 17 spaces for information. After a while, a pilot becomes so familiar with the plan form that they do not look at it when they phone in a flight plan. The last three spaces are number aboard, color of aircraft and destination contact. The Chinook pilot rattles off "three S O B (which stands for souls on board), its big-its green-its ugly, destination on file. Hang on, I've got another guy here who wants to file (referring to me)." And he hands me the phone.

I was laughing as I took the phone from his hand. He looked at me, grinned and said something like... "You saw it. It is big, it is green and it is ugly. But it is a great aircraft."

And it is just that. They have been in service since something like 1962.

It was one of those days...

Here it is... 4:23 p.m. and I am finally getting around to posting here. Since I usually get to work early I normally do this as soon as I get to the office and before my work day "officially" begins, but today I had to hit the ground running. And I have been running ever since.

This photo was taken in November, 2007, during construction of the New Doudna Fine Arts Center at Eastern Illinois University. It shows installation of the copper sheeting on the exterior of the main theatre.

You might want to slow down...

Hopefully, we will not have scenes like this until next winter. It is so refreshing to see the trees and flowers starting to bud.

Leaves on Pond

Something a little different today. This photo was taken in October, 2004, at Fox Ridge State Park near Charleston, IL. These leaves floating on a pond provide an interesting study of form, texture and contrast. 

Monday morning... where's the coffee?

Today's photo is an image of Lumpkin Hall at Eastern Illinois University.

We had a crazy weather weekend with thunderstorms Saturday evening and then a light cover of snow Sunday morning. The snow vanished as soon as the sun hit it. Heavy frost coated things this morning. Just another reminder of how early spring is here in Central Illinois. I'm not really complaining. This weather is minor compared to the blizzard conditions in Kansas and the flooding in Fargo.  

Now, if I can just find some coffee.... perhaps I can get started on what will hopefully be an under-control day.

That was not too difficult

I think I will like it here. This seems to be an easy blog management system... and hey... the price is right.

I spent 23 years as a photojournalist before I made a career change and accepted a position as a Macintosh Computer instructional support specialist at Eastern Illinois University, my alma mater. I plan to use this blog as a forum for some of my photos and my thoughts about them... why I like the photo.... what motivated me to make it... what I feel when I look at it... things like that. Feel free to leave your comments about the photos where I have enabled reader comments. 

The photo at the top of this page is "The Red Zone" in the Doudna Fine Arts Center at EIU. We just moved into the new Doudna this academic year. The building was designed by renowned architect Antoine Predock and is an incredible place to work.

And one more thing... Please remember that all photos I publish here (except the photo of me at the right... it is my "official" university photo by Bev Cruse) are copyrighted original works and if you swipe them I will come after you legally when I find out about it.

Let the blogging begin!

OK... now I just need to figure this out. It does not look too difficult so let's see what happens.