Category Archives: photography

iPhoneography (and otherwise) Falls of the Ohio fossil beds

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The Falls of the Ohio State Park, on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, is a beautiful place. The river runs between the park’s starkly modern interpretive center and downtown Louisville.

Along the river are 390 million year-old fossil beds dotted with millions of tiny animal and plant remains embedded into rock as well as tiny tidal pools full of water from the river.

There’s an otherworldly feel to the landscape, with driftwood piled high on the Indiana side and the locks of the river on the other.

I’ve been a couple of times now and here are a few pictures, iPhone photos and ordinary digital pics.

Above is a digital shot of sunset along the river.

I love the contrast of tidal pools and the city in the background.

 

Today in Halloween: Princess of Pumpkinland

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Here’s another look at vintage Halloween pictures from the world wild web.

I’m not sure what to make of the creepy, rough-hewn masks of yesterday we’ve seen in a lot of these old snapshots. Were mask-making skills so rudimentary more than a half-century ago? Or was a lot of detail lost in these photos? Was it possible to tell, face to face, the character or person the mask was based on?

In this one, a girl cradles a pumpkin while she sits among other pumpkins.

Her mask is a puzzler. The arched brows, full but frozen lips …. who knew there had ever been a market for Tallulah Bankhead masks?

Today in Halloween: Scared people in Canadian haunted house

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I might as well link to this since everyone else is.

Here’s a link to one of many, many places online where you can find pictures taken inside the Nightmare Fear Factory, a haunted house on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

The haunted house’s owners put still and video cameras at strategic scary parts of the haunted house. The resulting photos are hilarious.

Enjoy.

iPhoneography: Fall colors

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I dread the onset of winter, but I really like a lot about fall: Halloween, crisp colors and the colors of turning leaves.

So here are a few fall pics I snapped with my iPhone while on a walk tonight.

 

Close up or at a distance, the colors are so warm they belie the cool weather.

 

Jet trails make a nice contrasting image.

 

Today in Halloween: One is the loneliest trick-or-treater

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I don’t think I ever went trick-or-treating by myself. Not that I was an in-demand Halloween night companion, but I pretty much always made the rounds with cousins and friends in town.

So there’s no snark from me about this solo trick-or-treater. Here’s hoping she (she rather than he? I’m thinking that’s a witch costume) joined up with a whole pack of trick-or-treaters at the end of her sidewalk.

And I’m hoping she has many happy Halloween memories to this day.

 

 

Today in Halloween: A witch and … a what?

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It’s time for another dip into the misty days of Halloween long gone. It’s another snapshot of creepy trick-or-treaters!

I’ve been trying to run some of these masks through Google image search, hoping I can identify them.

The little kid on the left is, obviously, a witch. It’s a pretty classic mask, hat and outfit.

But the guy on the right? A Google image search mostly produced photos of bald old men from Russian websites. True story.

So, based on the bumpy skin, the big pointy teeth and the outfit that looks like it might be some kind of medieval armor, I’m gonna say this kid was ahead of his time and decades ahead of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” costume designers.

Looks like an orc to me.

Today in Halloween: Creepy trick-or-treaters

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You may have seen some of these scattered around the Interwebs or you might not have; they’re not as ubiquitous as awkward family photos.

As an occasional feature here during Halloween season, I’m going to show some of the best, creepiest, in some cases most nightmarish old Halloween costume photos I found online.

There’s some pretty creepy trick-or-treaters among these. Most of them are vintage and black and white, which only adds to the spooky appeal.

Kicking off our series is this early 20th century kid in a jester costume. Hmmm. He’s not especially creepy … oh dear god, he’s holding a human head! And he’s looking to collect treats in it!

 

iPhoneography: Halloween at the dollar store

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It’s hard to believe we’re about a month out from our favorite holiday. So it’s a good time to take a look at some iPhone photos of Halloween stuff.

This time: Halloween at the dollar store. Because of the “everything for a dollar” pricing of dollar stores, Halloween masks, costumes, accessories and decor are decidedly more limited. But what these items lack in scope they more than make up for in creativity.

Take the product above for example. Body parts! And they’re artificially flavored. Uh … thank you?

Halloween and superheroes go together. And now you can buy candy cigarettes just like Superman and Batman smoke. Although I believe the candy cigarettes like Shaggy smokes are only available from specially licensed sellers.

How about these Boogers? They’re tangy!

And the box tells us the flavors! Mmmm … Snottermelon!

Okay, if you’ve had enough candy, how about some decor? I really rather like these little perched figures.

Last but not least, a staple of Halloween items at the dollar store, the bloody cloth. Although if you spend enough time digging for Halloween boogers, you can probably produce your own bloody cloth.

‘Til next time!

iPhoneography: Hartford City, Indiana

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It’s time for another look at one of East Central Indiana’s cities as glimpsed through my iPhone.

Hartford City, county seat of Blackford County, was settled and platted in the mid-1800s, sent soldiers to fight and die in the Civil War and saw a growth spurt during the late 1800s natural gas boom.

Curiously, there’s not a lot of recognition of the gas boom in Hartford City – unlike Gas City, just to the north, where some street sign posts are shaped like natural gas wells – but the community’s remembrance of its sons’ Civil War service is very noticeable around the courthouse.

The top photo is a view of the Blackford County Courthouse’s 165-foot tower.

The courthouse was the county’s second, built 1893-95, as a historical marker helpfully tells us, and is an example of Richardsonian Romanesque style.

The tower is very eye-catching and helps the courthouse dominate the downtown square.

The courthouse square has war memorials on each corner. This is the Civil War memorial.

In Hartford City, they keep their cannon balls handy. And shiny.

Among the other memorials is one to World War I doughboys.

Inside the courthouse, this tin ceiling is a nice architectural detail.

Like many smaller cities and towns, Hartford City has struggled to keep its downtown alive. Hartford City has some truly impressive and historic buildings surrounding its courthouse square, though. One of them is the Tyner/Knights of Pythias building.

The Tyner building, built around 1900, was home to professional offices for decades and was, in the 1920s, home to the Ku Klux Klan. At the time, the KKK had a huge presence in Indiana and all but constituted a shadow government.

Then there’s the Hotel Ingram, which online sources date to 1893. It’s a beautiful building in Romanesque Revival style but has seen better days.

One of Hartford City’s grandest buildings surely was the Weiler’s Building, once home to a large department store. Weiler’s store was opened by four brothers from Germany. The town’s elders bragged that Weiler’s rivaled any big city department store.

Lastly, a look at a ghost sign. I enjoy finding these on the sides of downtown buildings. I’m posting this even though the sun’s rays really weren’t in the right spot for this shot. But there is a ghost sign there, believe me!