Rescued From the Depths of my Hard Drive

Every once in a while I get the urge to look back through some of my older shots to see if there are any that I may have skimmed over or possibly just to give a different take on the processing.
This photo is a good example of that.

We saw this wonderful barn along side the road in Northern Arkansas back in February when we drove down to visit our friends. Originally I didn't like this shot as the sky was a bit murky and the contrast wasn't great. I love the barn so much, though, that I decided to give it another shot and I was quite happy with the result this time around.

What do you think?

A Good Tip Doesn't Hurt

People often ask me how I find the buildings, cars and landscapes that often make up my subject matter. I generally respond, "I get lucky". Which is true much of the time. Often I will open up Google Earth, poke around and decide on an area that looks like it could offer some photo possibilities and point my car in that direction. Other times I'll just be driving on my way somewhere and spot something out of the corner of my eye and (much to my fiancee's chagrin) flip the car around and shoot it.
Sometimes, however, I'll get a great tip from someone on the location of something to shoot. This recently happened at the opening of my show "No Trespassing: Th Beauty in Decay". A very nice lady approached me and was expressing her affinity for an image of a barn I had in the show. She went on to say that there was a barn on her family's land that would make a great subject and even offered to show me where it was.
She was so adamant about it that I took her up on it. She sent me the whereabouts and a couple weeks later I headed to southern Johnson County just before sunset. And she was right, the barn was a thing of beauty. I was also able to capture a nice prairie shot just down the road.
I will definitely keep my ears peeled for future suggestions from other people.

School's Out for S̶u̶m̶m̶e̶r̶ Ever

If you live in Kansas City, chances are you are aware that over the past couple of years they have closed half of the schools in the city. Did you ever wander what happens to those buildings? Well, most of them are left to rot. I know, because I've begun exploring some of the schools that have been closed for many years.
I am always amazed at the things I find in these schools that was left behind. The buildings have such a air of sadness to them - one buzzing with kids, now silent.

My most recent exploration was of the abandoned John K. Stark school - found in Independence, MO on Blue Ridge Blvd & 18th St. I was unable to find any information on how long the school had been closed, but from the condition of the structure I would say at least 10 years. I was able to find, however, that the school was build in 1930 and was named after the original owner of the land who was a highly regarded dentist.

As with every school I have explored - the vandals had made their mark. Nearly every wall was tagged and most of the classrooms had been ransacked. However, there wasn't any sign of bums living there - as is the case with the schools closer to the urban core.



The exterior of the John K. Stark school from the back.


A desk found in one of the classrooms – notice the hornet nest.


First floor hallway


A ransacked teacher's desk


The gym - love the Pepsi sign

You can check out the full set here

Other explored schools:
Horace Mann School
Switzer School

On to the next school!