shutter-tonin

Back in the Saddle Again

2009-01-27T16:59:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I last posted something and to tell the truth, I have just been kinda out of it. I was trying to follow the path of "don't try anything creative until you actually feel like it". The problem with that was I was afraid of loosing my touch and started to get worried when that "feeling" was not showing around on my mind's doorstep. I saw things I wanted to photograph but that was it. I didn't go out and do it!!!! I need a jump start so what better way to start up Asgard than a cemetery. these shots were taken on a bright very cold day. Here is a little sample of what interested me that day............................as always thanks for viewing and enjoy.

***Photos edited by SRMarek Photography***

Warren Dunes

2008-10-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

Today was spent with my wife and daughter. We decided to go someplace different to see some fall foliage. We went to Warren Dunes located in Sawyer Michigan. This place was beautiful with a mixture of different tress and very large dunes going towards the lake. Warren dunes is a 1,952 acre state park designated in 1930. A large storm was approaching and we had to head out after a very fun and adventurous day......did I mention that Alexandria lost the car keys?

Barely Holding On

2008-10-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

Here is another factory that I found and it is unknown what it was used for. Some said that they remembered it being some sort of a gravel manufacturing and concrete grinding factory. It was very cool to walk through but this was probably the most dangerous place that I have been in.

19th Century Giant Wheel Re-incarnated

2008-10-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today my father took us to a very small town telling us that there is a bridge there made from some remains of a 19th Century "Ferris" wheel. When we arrived, just the look of the bridge as different, kind of Gothic. Well they say it should be a goal of every intelligent person to learn something everyday. Today I learned where the name "Ferris Wheel" came from. Here is a little history I would like to share with you:

A little piece of history is rusting away quietly where it has spanned the waters of the Kankakee River for a century. Legend has it that Dunn's Bridge, just north of Tefft, Indiana, is constructed from steel salvaged from one of the late 19th century's most audacious engineering project--the gigantic mechanical wheel designed and constructed by George W. G. Ferris for the 1893 World's Fair. The Galesburg Illinois native (who grew up in Nevada) and civil engineer was 33 years old when he scribbled the design for the world's first large amusement ride on a napkin at a Chicago restaurant. Ferris designed his great wheel in answer to a challenge by Daniel Burnham to create a monument that would rival the Eiffel Tower, a chief exhibit at the Paris exhibition of 1889.
George Ferris' great wheel drew big crowds at the 1893 Chicago fair, and again at the 1904 Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis. But even the hefty fifty cent fare was not enough pay the cost of running this behemoth. It was dynamited on May 11, 1906 and sold for scrap. Shortly thereafter, Ferris' wife left him, saying he was obsessed by his wheel. He died alone and penniless in a hotel room a few days later.

Old-timers in the area of Tefft remember that a local farmer, J.D. Dunn, traveled to Chicago at the close of the fair in 1894 and bought part of the wheel as scrap. Transported to Dunn's property by railroad and horse drawn vehicles, the steel pieces were fashioned into a bridge over the Kankakee, with John Cooper as the blacksmith and Alonzo Hilliand as the carpenter.
The area near the bridge and the present village of Dunn's was a favorite picnic area, with a dance hall, amusement park and several rustic taverns. Some of the picnic crowds reportedly remembered riding in the "monster wheel" in Chicago back in 1893.

Factory

2008-10-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

Asgard is back.......I know that it has been awhile but I am back in action and trying to bring you some cool images to view. This is a abandoned factory. I cannot find out any history about this place only that some said that it was functioning during WWII but no one really know what the hell they made. All I know is that it was multi-leveled and huge. There was a large drum that my dad put his arm on and the acid that was on top ate his jacket...sorry dad!!!! Well as always, thanks for viewing and being patient.

In Honor of Thy Father-part 2

2008-05-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

History of 769 Washington Street.
I have personally witnessed the aftermath of very violent acts and deaths at this location. You could tell that these were once very nice apartments but my experience then has been that these apartments now are rent by the week or month and will allow any person to rent there. The drug of choice back then was Heroine and I have seen individuals in the hallway passed out with needles in their veins and there was never enough light in there. The place smelled of cigarettes, alcohol and death. There was always someone moaning that usually turned into screams. No one seemed to care…… about anything.

In Honor of Thy Father

2008-05-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

There in one person who really likes to go into old abandoned buildings as much as me and that is my father Alex. He is very close to me and when I was a very young child, we were always together either taking things apart or exploring places. On May 12, 2008 my father shared his 72nd birthday with me. We went into 2 abandoned buildings, and he explored everywhere within them and I took pictures. Just like old times. Both of us doing what we love to do. The first location is the Jackson Arms apartments and the second was 769 Washington Street. Now, there are a lot of people that see images in my photos and this day must been a perfect day for it. I have not changed or enhanced any of the photos, what you see is what it is. All I can tell you is that we did not see anything out of the ordinary but both of us felt as though we were not alone. The “spots” can be explained as a reflection through the lens but the “spots” move in different frames with the camera staying in the exact same location (use of tripod) and I have never seen this with the lenses that I used that day. There are a lot of photos so I will break it up as #1) Jackson Arms apartments and #2) 769 Washington Street. So dad, here is to you!!!!!

Jackson Arms Apartments:

St. Mary Mercy Hospital #2

2008-04-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

Gary Saint Mary Mercy Hospital 1

2008-04-20T21:19:00.001-07:00

OK…back on track! Here are some of my photos (you should know my style by now) to get the pace going again. We went to the old Saint Mary Mercy Hospital located in northern Gary. The newer part of the hospital has been renovated into the Gary Public Safety Facility. The police department and the city court are located in this building. This is my home for at least 8 hours a day. The part that we adventured in is blocked off from the inside and has not been entered since. Of course we found a way in. There are a lot of photos to show, so I will split them up into a couple of posts. The only info I could find is that this building was finished in 1957 and I think that it was closed in 1995? Not sure about that. I can’t really remember when it closed…sorry. Enjoy!

Tracks

2008-04-19T14:04:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this photo with you. My wife asked if I could take some “nice” pictures of her that was in a different place. There is one thing about my wife that is for sure…she knows me. She knows that I am always seeing things through dark lenses and some sort of distortion so I knew exactly what she meant by “nice”. I remembered some old train tracks that haven’t been used in a while not too far from our home. Here is one of the photos that came out of that shoot. It is not my usual style but my wife likes how they came out. Thanks for viewing.

WELCOME HOME

2008-04-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

Gary Methodist Church-2nd & 3rd floor

2008-04-12T22:42:00.000-07:00

Back at the Gary Methodist Church again and this time Khalila and I went to the second and third floor. There was a basketball court and some class rooms with lockers and stairs leading to the roof. There are a lot of photos here but this church is so inviting and every time that I go here, there a few people there taking photos. In some of these shots you can see the evidence of the fire that it survived

Seth Thomas

2008-04-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have never met Seth but when I look at his pictures, I feel that I know him. Do you know what I mean? I have been working the streets of the "badlands" for over 17 years now and have worked all shifts. I am almost postivie that I have bumped into him or at the very least, seen him walking downtown. I have to give props to Seth, he is a inspiration and a influence to many. This makes him immortal. Please take some time to view him memorial site. Thank you and may your God go with you .
http://www.seth-thomas.org/

NAILED

2008-04-11T18:41:00.001-07:00

American Dream-Relinquished

2008-04-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

Not too far away from where I live, is a house foundation that was never finished. I must have passed this place a thousand times and never gave it a second look until one day I noticed it. It sits on a very sharp curve and the roads were icy that day so I was cautious. There it was just sitting there covered by overgrown thorn bushes and fallen trees. Khalia went with me to take some quick shots. Shortly after we exited the car, we were approached by the neighbor and his son. After we introduced ourselves and told them why we were there, the father told us that a man that built the foundation started it in 1966 and then could not finish his “dream house” because he died one year later. The neighbor told us that it was a very unique blueprint and that the bottom portion of the house was going to be the garage and laundry area and the living quarters was going to reach 2 to 3 stories above this. The foundation was flooded and muddy. I did not enhance any color on the photos and I was real happy with the results. Oh by the way, the puppet’s name is Joshua and I brought him along for the shoot. There will be more of Joshua to come later…..

Asylum

2008-04-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

INTRO:
I like to adventure and explore abandoned buildings, taking photos in and around them. I saw pictures of the “large abandoned insane asylum” in northern Michigan and immediately wanted to be one of the photographers that went there. My wife and I packed up the gear and headed north. I was hoping to get inside and snap away. The whole way up there, we wondered how it would look and how it would feel to be there.
HISTORY:
The Northern Michigan Asylum (now the Traverse City State Hospital) was organized in 1881. It opened on November 30, 1885, with forty-three residents. Dr. J. D. Munson was the facility's superintendent for its first thirty-nine years. The original buildings served five hundred residents. By 1959 the facility had 1 million square feet of floor space and housed 2,956 residents. The institution's farms and its processing and manufacturing facilities covered over a thousand acres and made it nearly self-sufficient. Between 1885 and 1985 it served over fifty thousand residents. After 1960, with advances in treatment and community services, the need for in-patient facilities declined. In 1985 one hundred and fifty beds served the area's acute and intensive psychiatric needs.
MYTH:
I have read that the area is haunted and that if you wore anything that had a religious meaning, it was either damaged or would mysteriously get lost when you entered the premises.
CONCLUSION:
We didn’t get a chance to go inside any of the buildings but to just be there and look up at them, was amazing. The complex is huge and it even had its own fire department, bakery, textile and upholstery facility. There definitely was a “feeling” there that was hard to explain. We were really excited to walk around the complex and your mind races with thoughts of how it must have been years ago. When you looked at the buildings with the safety bars bolted from the outside, your mind wonders of how many faces were pressed up against the metal bars and the loud moans and screams that echoed through the trees on the large lawns. Well at least my mind wondered.
There is a large renovation project going on and some of the buildings are actually remodeled and made into condos. Inside one of the buildings is a restaurant that was quite busy….yes I said condos! Again these buildings are very large and beautiful.
I keep the photos in a traditional black and white except for the renovated parts. By the way, we didn’t wear any religious symbols so I couldn’t tell you………….. I will return……….

Broken Window Theory?

2008-04-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Church shoot with model

2008-03-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

I was lucky to have a model with me the day that I went into the church. She was great to work with being very patient and never once complained about the 35 degrees in there. Again these shots were taken with a Nikon D-80 with a kit lens and all lighting was natural. I had a fun time shooting away and there was a "buzz" in the church making me even more creative.

Church 2

2008-03-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more shots within in the abandoned church. I used a Nikon D-80 and all shots were natural light.

First photo

2008-03-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

I chose one of my favorites for my first photo to give me a high standard. This photo was taken in downtown Gary Indiana at a Methodist church tha has survived abandonment and a fire. It is currently owned by the city and it is on the list to be demolished. This beautiful structure was built in 1925 and everytime that I go by it, it seems to talk to me, inviting me in.

Enjoy this photo and I hope that some "mood" comes over you.