Yankee Junkyard

This week was really exciting because I decided to pull the trigger and buy a new camera! I had decided on the Nikon D90 awhile ago, but had put off the purchase until I had enough saved up and last weekend I figured it was time to upgrade from the D50. Anyways, these are some of the first pictures from that new camera. It will definitely take me some time to figure out all the nuances (especially in controlling the highlights) but so far I am very happy with it. The controls are almost identical to the D50, but the live view and large screen on the back make things really easy to see what I'm shooting. With the extra mega pixel count and larger dynamic range I can literally see the difference when I get the pictures up on the computer screen. It will take me awhile to get really comfortable with it but I'm so excited to use it some more.

These pictures were taken just down the street from from my home at the Stillwater Farm in Sterling, MA. The farm was basically abandoned in the 70s and bought by the MDC (now the DCR) in the 1990s. It is a special place for me and my family because my brother did his Eagle Scout project there (which was the first Eagle Project done at the farm) and I did one of the last Eagle Projects there in 2005-2006. It is now an educational site that brings in school groups to educate them about watershed conservation. Along the tree line there is what I would describe as a "Yankee Junkyard". Pretty much any trash or old worn out farm equipment was thrown out in the woods so that if parts were needed or if something could be salvaged later they had it literally right in their backyard. I feel this was fairly common in early New England and still is common as proved by my two next door neighbors' woods (see 58 Chevy).

All of these pictures are shot from the back woods. The top shot is of the barn which is still undergoing badly needed repairs. I have been inside numerous times and am planning on getting back in to take some photos because it has a lot of interesting places to explore. I shot this from the hip just as the wind began to blow a whole bunch of leaves off the trees. The second photo is the Yankee Junkyard from afar. The trees are all on weird angles because of the wind that blows down the hill. This is one of the areas I cleared brush for my project so I am happy to see that it is still relatively easy to walk through. The last photo is of a wheel from an old manure spreader. I was intrigued by how all these pieces of equipment age. The wooden parts, or what's left of them, have been preserved remarkably well and it is interesting to see how the metal rusts and the rubber decomposes into dust. I will probably revisit this place when the lighting isn't quite as crazy, but I am very happy with how these first photos came out.

In other news, I had another exciting discovery this week when I learned about approximately 100 acres of junkyard in the woods of West Greenwich, RI. The pictures I've seen so far show exactly what I'm looking to photograph which are old muscle cars that have sadly been abandoned in the woods to rust. Hopefully there will be more to come on this soon!

Desoto

So I've finally started to figure out a project that I can pursue for awhile. I've have wanted to do this for quite a long time, but actually finding the subject has been difficult. Anyways I started this past week working on photographing old cars. I posted about why cars mean so much to me in an earlier post, but there are a few things that motivate me to photograph these cars. First, cars have been a huge part of my life since day one because of my Dad. He has been a car guy all his life and grew up around and surrounded by cars in an era of low gas prices and lots of power under the hood. So one of my objectives in this project is to photograph these cars not as a piece of metal but as a period of time when chrome and fins were idolized. I want to photograph them not just as a car, but to look at them in close up shots and angles that have not been seen before and that celebrate the artistic quality of the curves and the overall design. The second thing I want to do is look at their surroundings. I see a lot of these cars as people as odd as that may sound. Their grills and headlights were designed to look a particular way, either happy or mean to convey aggressive styling. When I see cars that have been left in a field to rust or pushed into the corner of a junkyard I can see a sad depressed look on them. With chrome that is rusted away and parts that have long been stripped off they definitely look neglected and pushed aside to make room on the roads for new sleeker looking cars. I want to capture what these cars are surrounded by and how that makes them look. The third thing I want to do is to see what time has done to them. I want to photograph the rust, dust, dirt, and anything piled on top of them (or in them) over the years that they have been sitting.

These photos were taken at a little gas station/garage just outside the center of Leominster, MA. This Desoto Firedome (which is a name most people now would not even recognize) goes back to the mid to late 50s. I am still researching to find out exactly when this car was made, but it actually was not in bad shape. It looks like it is being restored (or was at one time), but it was still in its neglected state among the other rusted vehicles. Anyways, this is a work in progress and I would really like to know what everyone thinks. I will be moving on to another car and hopefully an actual junkyard this week. I would like to continue this idea and more pictures from this shoot will be up shortly.

Swedes

This past week I set out into Worcester to find junkyard cars and unfortunately did not find what I was seeking. In the meantime however I found a truly beautiful place. I had looked at a map the previous day and noticed a Swedish cemetery down a side street off of Cambridge Street. I walked down that side street and saw a very welcoming path that took me right into the middle of the cemetery. Even though I knew it was around in the area I did not know exactly where it was. I felt somehow drawn to this particular path and once inside I immediately knew it was the cemetery I had seen on the map because of the names on the stones. I was surrounded by Johnson's, Carlson's, Anderson's, and Mattson's. Maybe it was just coincidence, but I felt like I was drawn to the place by the generations old Swedish blood pulsing through my veins. As I walked through this cemetery I thought about my grandmother Ida and my grandfather Emil who immigrated to the States when they were no older than myself. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to leave my country to find work in a place that didn't know my language with nothing but a trunk full of belongings. But all around me were the graves and stories of people who followed the same path coming to find work and opportunity.

I am particularly proud of my Swedish heritage. As far as I can trace back I am three quarters Swedish and only removed from being completely Swedish by two generations. I am also proud to be an American and it always seems that Swedish-Americans feel the same way. I will always remember my grandmother telling me how much she missed her home but loved being in such a beautiful country like the U.S. Especially with the recent election results I could not be prouder of my country and I think that was on my mind when I took these pictures. In the top image drew me in because of the single rose placed on the stone with the American flag pointed in proudly toward the obviously Swedish name. The image below caught my eye because of the dual pride that I mentioned earlier. I have grown up seeing both flags displayed and it almost seems a little strange to see one without the other to me. Everywhere I looked in this cemetery it seemed that there was this dual pride. Even the traash canisters were striped blue and yellow with Swedish Dala horses painted on them. It was a truly beautiful place to visit and I think one of the hidden gems of Worcester.