Tag Archives: iPhone photos

iPhoneography: Zombie Walk

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Really, who doesn’t love a good zombie parade?

Today’s Zombie Walk in Muncie – sponsored by local groups to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank and Animal Rescue Fund (ARF) – was held around the Ball State University campus.

Several dozen people turned out for what was rather a brisk Zombie Walk. It was a lot of fun and made for good iPhone pictures.

There was a medical theme to some of the zombies. I saw at least one in surgical garb and this patient, complete with IV.

Zombie Jesus or Zombie Russell Brand? You decide.

Zombie Bandana Guy was properly freaky.

Some charming zombies ladies in dresses. I’m a fashion know-nothing. Are these supposed to be out-of-date old lady zombies?

You think you have problems, all you zombies out there. This zombie had two heads. TWO HEADS! Yet she seemed relatively upbeat.

This photo doesn’t properly show it off, but this zombie had a drooping eyeball. Great makeup.

If you’ve got zombies, you need some paramilitary human presence. Goes without saying.

You can tell the zombie kid to the left is thinking, “What’s the deal with the guy in the red bodysuit? I thought this was a zombie walk.”

The organizers put a green screen near the end and asked zombies to pass in front of it. Made for some great closeup pics.

This kid was totally into it.

Zombie Blues Brothers. They’re on a mission from God.

iPhoneography: 2012 Indiana State Fair

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The Indiana State Fair brings summer to a close for hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers, who go back to school and jobs not long after the fair’s run.

The fair is also an opportunity for good iPhone photography.

The midway carnival rides are a natural photo subject. I’m pretty sure the Vertigo ride is new this year.

I haven’t found anything online that tells me how tall it is. I’m guessing … pretty tall.

The Freak Out is among the new traditional rides at fairs at the county and state level. It’s apparently a variation on a European ride called The Frisbee.

The Screamer is another new favorite.

If you’re more of  a traditionalist, the Ferris wheel is for you. The first was built for the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. The book “Devil in the White City” has some very interesting background on the Ferris wheel.

Sometimes traditional rides operate under a variety of  variations and names, including the Matterhorn, also known as the Flying Bobs.

The Firestorm is a traditional ride …

So is the Cliffhanger, or hang glider.

If you’re in need of a more sedate ride, the state fair offers shuttle trams pulled by tractor.

And lest we forget that 4-H competition is a big part of any fair …

Working at the cow wash. Get it?

 

 

iPhoneography: Drizzly D.C.

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It was raining, or threatening to rain, most of the time I was in Washington, D.C., a couple of days ago. I was there for an awards ceremony, with work and home obligations bookending the trip, and there wasn’t a lot of time to waste.

I managed to see a few sights and take a few pictures with my iPhone. There’s nothing you haven’t seen before by thousands of other, better photographers. There’s something interesting about the city’s many monuments and buildings when it’s raining, however.

I never got near the U.S. Capitol, unfortunately. I checked out the White House from all sides but it was the least interesting building I saw.

I’m guessing that, in this post-9-11 world, Pennsylvania Avenue will never be reopened. It’s a shame, in a way, that you can’t buzz past the White House on your way somewhere (unless you’re on foot or on a bike). But the closed street makes for some nice photo opportunities.

One of the most mind-boggling, purely in terms of size, buildings I saw was the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, named after the former president but originally the headquarters of the nation’s military commanders when it was built in the late 1800s. My picture can’t do justice to its size. It is truly mammoth.

The Lincoln Memorial is majestic, of course.

The juxtaposition of the memorial to the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool makes it the most memorable place in D.C. The pool was drained for repairs while I was there, unfortunately.

Perhaps the most moving memorial in D.C. is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, including the Wall, designed by Maya Lin and featuring the names of more than 58,000 soldiers killed in Vietnam.

The rain only seemed to make the day more appropriate for viewing the wall.

Another element of the Vietnam War memorial is the statue of three soldiers.

The statue is realistic and hauntingly beautiful.

iPhoneography: County fair carnival rides

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What would summer be without a county fair? The fair gives us food that’s good and bad for us, carny games and carnival rides – and an opportunity for iPhone photos.

Here’s a look at this week’s Delaware County Fair, held in Muncie, Indiana.

The last couple of hours of daylight and the onset of twilight is my favorite time to take carnival pictures. You’ve got enough light to get some details but a strong source of light to make for dramatic backlighting. Then, within a few minutes, the sky darkens enough to create beautiful artificial lighting photos.

Here’s another shot of the Yo-Yo.

 

The Ferris wheel is always a favorite.

 

The Freak Out looks very different by day …

… and night.

Gotta love the games, including the ever-popular balloon-busting ones.

And the prizes. When I took this, a young woman operating the game said, “Are you taking a picture of my crabs?”

Night falls on the midway.

 

iPhoneography: Albany, Indiana

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The town of Albany, Indiana, several miles north of Muncie, has remained surprisingly robust during its history. While other Indiana and Midwestern towns have withered on the vine, Albany has maintained a population of more than 2,000 people. It has a thriving downtown and local businesses.

Here’s a summer 2012 iPhone look at Albany.

For much of the 20th century, the McCormick Brothers company was the town’s biggest business. Founded in 1907 and lasting until the last quarter of the century, McCormick Brothers made a variety of metal products over the decades, beginning with washboards, moving into metal kitchen cabinets and then products for the war and interstate highway efforts.

While other businesses have occupied the sprawling McCormick Brothers plant, the most notable landmark remains its water tower, seen above.

Albany has a number of businesses in its downtown, including C.J.’s Hardware Store. C.J.’s is an old-fashioned hardware store with wooden floors, rolling ladders to help the store’s employees reach products on high shelves and the kind of  broad but selective inventory that makes old-fashioned hardware stores fun to walk around in.

Albany has a five-and-dime store. For many years, McCord’s Five and Ten offered bulk candy, nuts, household goods and some curious items. The sign is still on display inside the store. Under new ownership now, the store still has what might be the area’s biggest selection of hairnets.

The great old-school packaging makes the hairnets look like leftovers from the 1960s, but the store still sells hairnets to food service workers around the area.

Mood rings, anyone? They have ’em.

One of the town’s churches was getting a new roof the day I was there.

This “ghost sign” for Colonial Break decorates the end of a building.

I’ve seen this sign, on the side of a building, before but never understood it. Would it light up, ring and alert passersby and police if a burglar alarm had been tripped? I’d like to know more about it.

One of Albany’s most popular restaurants, the Dairy Dream.

iPhoneography: The beauty of cemeteries

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There’s something about cemeteries, particularly historic cemeteries, that really suits photography. Cemeteries are places of mourning and remembrance and celebration. They’re also places where art and architecture and personal taste — of the deceased and the loved ones left behind — mix.

Beech Grove Cemetery is the city-owned cemetery for Muncie, Indiana. Established in the mid-1800s, Beech Grove is home to some of the area’s oldest gravesites.

The city’s oldest and most established families have graves and mausoleums there, but it’s also the final resting place for some of the community’s poorest residents, with an entire section of graves of people buried at government expense.

Here are some iPhone photos of Beech Grove sites I saw today.

Above: A grave with a marker but also with a statue of Jesus — holding wind chimes and other items — and personal items important to the deceased or family members.

A grave marked only by a small wooden cross with magic-marker lettering.

Peeling paint on this wooden cross.

A row of mausoleums for some of Muncie’s captains of industry.

The approach to one of the Ball family mausoleums.

The ornate front door of a Petty family mausoleum.

The stained glass window in the rear of the Petty mausoleum.

A towering obelisk marks the grave of a Muncie physician.

iPhoneography: Farmland, Indiana

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Just down the road from me is the town of Farmland, Indiana. Farmland — which, true to its name, is surrounded by farm fields — is a town of about 1,300 in Randolph County.

Although it’s a small town, Farmland is something of a tourist attraction. It has a couple of good family restaurants — the Chocolate Moose is an old-fashioned burger-and-milkshake soda fountain — some interesting shops and an active cultural life.

It’s a very picturesque little town, with rehabbed streets, sidewalks and streetlights.

I was there the other day on a semi-work-related visit and took a few iPhone photos.

Like a lot of Heartland towns, the center of activity was once the local grain elevator, a towering structure near the rail line that cuts through the heart of town. The elevator isn’t in use for grain anymore; shops occupy the lower level. On a clear Indiana day, though, it’s still a focal point.

The rail line that cuts through Farmland just says “Indiana” to me, and stretches for miles and miles.

There’s not a town square, per se, but a neat old clock outside what used to be the opera house.

Farmland’s a nice place to go have lunch and look at shops. Definitely worth the trip.

iPhoneography: Muncie Gras

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I had some fun last night live-tweeting Muncie Gras, the annual Mardi Gras celebration here in Muncie, for The Star Press. It’s a wild street party and, sparked by nice spring weather, attracted thousands of people.

Armed with my iPhone, I took pics and Tweeted until Twitter decided we had exceeded our limit.

One of these photos was seen on The Star Press Twitter feed. I’m posting them here because I liked them.

The iPhone has some photo limitations, but I think it brought a nice quality to these photos of a woman with a light-up Hula Hoop.

 

iPhoneography: Christmas at the dollar store

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As Calvin’s dad used to say, it’s a very special time! No, it’s not bath time. It’s time for more iPhone photos of Christmas stuff.

This time: Christmas at the dollar store.

This is too easy, really. Considering the offshore origin of most of these products, it’s probably no surprise that the packaging would contain a misspelling of the word ornaments.

I’m not sure if something got lost in translation here too. I always thought these were called snow globes. Maybe water balls is the acceptable name when there’s not really a lot of artificial snow included, which is the case here.

Here’s something for your jolly old elf and eight tiny reindeer: A tiny lunchbox. Actually, I suppose it’s intended as a gift box. But it would be perfect for taking your Christmas-themed Little Debbies to work.

Here’s some packaging that’s intentionally funny. If it’s too hard to read, the basic joke is that this Christmas cotton candy is guaranteed to prompt a smile in “typically pleasant individuals.”

“If you are a major grouch that doesn’t smile at a puppy or a rainbow then even we can’t help you.”

Cute.

More next time.

 

iPhoneography: Fall is here

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Yes, yes, I know that fall officially arrived more than a month ago, and we’ve had enough cool temperatures in Indiana to warrant switching on the furnace.

But there’s something about November that really reinforces the idea: It’s fall.

With Halloween over and the holiday season rushing toward us like an oncoming train, maybe there’s time to take a breath and contemplate the change of seasons.

These photos were taken with my iPhone in my neighborhood in recent days.

This green leaf — hanging precariously on a gate above a pile of leaves waiting to be raked — sums up how I feel about fall sometimes. I see it coming but I hate to give in because of what follows.

Most have given in already.

Fall’s colors are beautiful.

Just a few months ago, this little ditch was teaming with wildlife. This morning it’s frosty.

A nice spot for watching the change of seasons.

Enjoy fall!