Dec 21, 2013

I went over to Kim and Chester's in the morning to meet their new human, Courtney. Clearly, she took to me right away.. ladies. But seriously, she was cute and pretty much slept the whole time I was there shooting.

As per uszjh, we did some ridiculous photos with farm things. I took pictures of them on tractors, near corn cribs (which I didn't know was a thing until this morning,) and of course, with the cows. I need to bring some city people out here to take some photos just to see what they do.

I met Jess in Philly at Spring Garden School No. 1, an abandoned elementary school north of downtown. We easily gained access through an open window in the back and were soon quietly creeping up the stairs and through the mess of hallways.

We heard someone on the second floor so I said hello and a guy came out, said hi, and then moved on. I felt the threat had been neutralized. I could tell he was a nice dude, so I wasn't worried anymore about a homeless guy with a broken bottle coming to stab us. All good. We went up to the roof and shot some photos of reflections and the skyline, enjoying the view.

The cage on top is a cool, unique feature. We slowly made our way down the floors, checking out the different rooms. Few were picturesque, but it was certainly interesting to see what had become of the school. I was surprised there were so many books still all over the building. We encountered our friend again, who was taking wiring or pipes out of the walls to sell, I presume. We exited through the basement, giving instructions to several girls who were just making their way inside. We checked out another building nearby, but we couldn't find an obvious way in so we called it a day.

I went over to Sedgley, where there was a tournament going on and a ton of people playing because the weather was so nice. I chose to come to The Abbaye instead. I got a Fullers ESB, which was perfection, and the seitan cheesesteak. I chatted with a guy at the end of the bar until Jordan and Phil showed up to hang with me. We had a good time talking and Jordan really liked the Sweet Baby Jesus! Food and drinks and friends was good.

Joanna met us there and hung out for a while before going to The Foodery and then Soy Cafe, where I got a green tea coffee or something like that. It was cold. And it was pretty good. We spent an hour or so there before it was time to head over to the show.

We went over to Union Transfer and waited for a while near annoying people until The Early November came out. They played through The Room's Too Cold in full, which was awesome almost all of the time. The last track didn't really play well live, but the rest of it was fantastic.

Ace said something like, "Oh we forgot to turn on these Christmas lights during that whole set.. If you guy hang around we might come back and play another one." And then they did. They played a decent amount of songs from their other albums. The new songs all sound so good live.

They closed with "Every Night's Another Story" of course. It was a great ending to an awesome show. The crowd was great; everyone was having a good time and being cool. Ace was as grateful and happy as always and I left with a big smile on my face. I love those guys. I didn't miss missing the Brand New show at all. This band never disappoints.

Nov 23, 2013

I had a meeting with potential clients for a wedding in the morning in Roebling, which is near Trenton. After rushing I got there just on time. The meeting went well and we talked about a bunch of things besides the wedding so I'm hopeful that they will hire me. I headed over to Wissahickon for a run to kill some time before meeting Jess later. It was quite chilly out, but once I started running the hills I warmed up really fast. I had a good run of about 3 miles, but I kind of turned my ankle twice on rocks. I'm surprised it wasn't worse considering how many rocks I have to sidestep on those trails. There were still enough leaves to make the trail really pretty.

I went over to Sedgley, where they were having their monthly tournament and found Philly's Mayor Nutter learning to putt at the practice basket. It was quite an unusual sight. He made one after a few attempts. The tournament was starting the second round and they weren't utilizing 10-18 so I played those first before getting back to 1. On hole 3 I caught up to two guys, Ben and John, who invited me to play with them. They were beginners and were quite amazed at my slight abilities. We had a good time playing, and somehow I was putting extremely well. I was hitting putts from twenty feet that I would normally miss for sure. 

I met Jess over at the Divine Lorraine and got a chai latte before trying to find our way in. This time we had to enter the adjacent building and go through the basement to get up into the hotel. After that it was familiar and easy. We checked out a few different floors as we climbed the stairs up. Jess was shooting more than I was because I wasn't interested in too much in the open, empty rooms. We got up to the top floor and then decided to take the fire escape access ladder up to the roof.

We had a beautiful view from the roof. The skyline was mostly unobstructed and when the sunset began it just kept getting better. The sky turned into burning magma cascading across the sky and it was just perfect. Right around sunset is when we suddenly looked up to see a guy standing there. It was very unexpected. He was followed by about 7 others. I thought we were going to be alone the whole time so that was a surprise. The people were from all over and met up on Instagram then decided to come here to meet in real life. Everyone was very nice.

After it started getting dark we turned on our flashlights and headed down the stairs, through the basement, up the ladder, and under the fence back to the street. It was quite a successful shoot. I headed home and met Ryan to play some of the Wii U Super Mario Bros. It's pretty great; just like the one for Wii. After some good playing we went out for a walk near the church. The wind was blowing like crazy and it got pretty chilly, but walking quickly helped warm me. The day tired me out so it's bedtime.

Mar 23, 2012

I met Laura and Jess in Glassboro and began our drive at 4:30am toward Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. After driving the periphery of the park for quite a while we found an entrance and came in. We were the first and only people in the park at 7am. I took some photos of the fog as they tried to nap in the car.

I walked the Switchback Trail down to the river and got some really great shots of the silhouetted trees and spiderwebs outlined by droplets of water.

We went over to the Rapids Trail after they stopped trying to sleep and wandered along the edge of the fast-flowing water. It was a nice secluded area with plenty of great views.

Henryton State Hospital is inside the park boundaries and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to explore the complex of abandoned buildings while we were so close. Several very large buildings sit out in the middle of the forest, long empty and decaying. It took us quite a while to walk through each of them.

They were all mostly gutted and covered in graffiti. It was interesting, but nothing really unique about any of it unfortunately.

We headed down to the southern part of the park and stopped at a picnic area to have lunch and rest for a bit. We then picked up the Cascade Falls trail and headed up the mild grade, following the stream.

The falls came pretty quickly on the hike and were smaller than we expected. The trail was a really nice and relaxing walk. Nothing too difficult. When we got back we were ready to head out.

On the way home we stopped at DuClaw for some food and a beer. The Celtic Ale was great. After hanging out for a bit at home Kate and I went to Christie's to hang out and watch The Lion King since we couldn't decide on any other movie.

Jan 4, 2012

Kate and I picked up Laura on the way to Philly and then found a place to park before walking to the hole in the fence by the old tunnels under Pennsylvania Ave.

There was a lot of graffiti that made the concrete posts look really great against the dull background. I shot some photos and we walked down the train tracks a bit.

The tracks went into a tunnel that turned pitch black so we took the bigger, more well-lit tunnel to the left and walked up it a bit. It goes right up to the police station, so we didn't take it all the way, but it was a cool visual. It was only a little scary as we passed a random guy hiding his face on the way out.

We went to Whole Foods to get lunch and look up other places we should go. It's been way too long since I've had their hot bar. We found a few places we wanted to check out and some places that seemed like they would be too difficult to enter.

We went to this burnt out school in north Philly and took a walk around it. The building is beautiful on the outside. I really wanted to go inside, but there weren't easy entrances and I wasn't really interested in being arrested. We stopped by the Divine Lorraine, but didn't try to get in this time. Maybe next time we'll have more luck.

I went to the Oar House when I got back to meet Ben from Turtle Stone Brewing, a new brewery from Vineland. We sat and chatted for a while and had a beer. It was a little awkward since he was there with his wife and some younger people that he didn't really explain. I thought it would be more of an interview.

I met everyone at Applebee's for Quizzo, where we didn't do very well. It was a good time anyway.

Feb 12, 2011

I picked up Laura and Jess and we headed to the nearest McDonald's because I was craving an Egg and Cheese muffin. I can't even remember the last time I went to McDonald's. Besides having to remove the meat they put on my sandwich despite me saying not to, it was pretty good. Then we got on the road.

The drive was somewhat long up the PA Turnpike, but Jess didn't notice because she was cuddling with her iPhone in the back seat.

We made it to Centralia, where there was still snow covering most of the ground and keeping us from finding an easy parking spot on the shoulder. We parked in a cemetery and walked over to the entrance to the old highway.

I was slightly dismayed when I saw that the road was covered with snow. I didn't remember exactly what it had looked like before but I knew there was highway here. We decided to walk around the bend and see if anything was uncovered.

I'm glad we did that because we came upon the section of the highway that was cracked and smoking just shortly after the bend! If you don't know, the town of Centralia was a mining town in the middle of the 20th century and in the late sixties, a coal fire started in one of the underground mines, spreading quickly and out of control, unable to be extinguished to this day. The heat is what caused the ruptured ground and also the evacuation of the entire town.

And this is what people do there now. We had some fun jumping around the giant cracks and taking photos for a while.

We got several awkward group shots before heading back to the car up the snowy road. The snow was a pain to walk through because it kept sinking under our feet.

Next, we headed to an abandoned coal breaker not far from Centralia that Jess had found out about and it looked really cool and creepy and interesting from the outside. I was a little worried about going in but Laura persuaded me so I made a run for it.

I was immediately glad I did because the inside of the place was awesome even in the main hallway. There were hanging hooks, broken down beams and random items all over the place.

As we ventured deeper into the place, the sights became even more exciting. There were gears and large machinery broken down and rusted all over the place, creating a beautiful scene out of urban decay; just what we came for.

This room was completely pitch black, lit only by Jess's iPhone and the ghost that probably lives in there according to Laura's camera....

My favorite room came on the third floor bathroom, where an old locker room full of boots on benches created one of the eeriest scenes I've ever shot. I love the photos I got of this and I want to go back just to shoot more.

Among other things, there were quite a few large saws around. They were pretty menacing looking and even though this place has been closed down for years, it seems like they could turn back on at any moment.

We ran to the top of the building just to get the view, which was pretty great. I think this is a conveyor system that was used to bring coal to the top of the system.

The balcony I'm standing on is pretty weak and I didn't want to stand there for too long but the view was nice in all directions. The sky was bright blue above the white snow and the contrast of the broken down old buildings on the beautiful snowy landscape was great.

Urban exploring makes one hungry, so we finally got some Chinese food on the way back. I got my usual veggie lo mein and crab rangoons. They were really good after being hungry for so long.

We drove along large open fields, watching the sun set beautifully on the horizon as we bade farewell to PA's rolling hills and looked forward to our return to the flat homeland of New Jersey.

The trip was great fun but I was so incredibly tired when I got home I watched some TV shows, talked to some people and was in bed by 10pm and sleeping before 11. Tell me the last time that's happened?!