Wednesday Sunset

Wednesday evening after finishing up our last senior portrait session in the studio I left with my business partner to go run an errand. The setting sun perfectly and poeticaly lit the evening up. The moving dust and dirt from the construction on the high performance computer center created a beautiful display as it passed through the light. It caught my attention as we were passing. The haze from the heat on Wednesday left us with an incredible sunset, one of few we have left as summer is folding up.

Here are a few photos.

Holyoke Dam: Night After Irene

I made some photos just after the rain let up on Sunday. I also made a few the following evening at the Robert E. Barrett Fishway in Holyoke. I produce a video, which you can also see on Lenshare, from both sides of the dam. To view both the photos and the videos, visit: http://www.lenshare.com/2011/08/hurricane-irene_31.html

 

Here are a few I made on Monday night. The cloud you see just above the river was forming due to the temperature and the moisture. It was rather interesting to watch the cloud form and move higher up.

 

Road Work

Whether your passing through quickly, have a destination down the street, or you need to make your way through the city for some other form of business, Holyoke has its share of constriction and repairs being made. Most of the road work is not very troublesome, but necessary. At the corner of Race and Dwight, ( the intersection where my business resides ) was being worked on yesterday. The section of Dwight to Main was closed due to the construction. The repair was mandatory and very much needed, as when it rains, the streets and drains back up. In the winter this creates lots of ice. When it rains, this create puddles of marginal size, making parking a wet journey. Here is a quick image made as a response to the construction as I was passing through Holyoke yesterday, going from one shoot to another.

Nice Day

It is a beautiful, warm, summer day. Get up. Go for a walk. Take a gender at the beauty of the summer before it is gone.

That Dam Cafe

After a great shoot in the studio, my business partner and I headed out to check on a location for a wedding this coming weekend. Hungry and already on Northampton St, (rt 5) for the non-townies, we decided sandwiches from The Dam Cafe was in order. I have made numerous references to the Dam through this site, have put up a few photos here or there, some every where. But, lunch was great! I have a few more photos to include from today. Nothing special, just a few shots in passing really.

 

Stepping out side of the city for a little while on business, I know, I know, "why leave Holyoke?" Well, some times we have to, we took a drive to Montgomery to view a location we have never had a wedding at yet. A quaint little church nestled half way between 01040 and the Birkshires, it will be alive Saturday afternoon with the soft spoken buzz of new love, "I DO!'s, and tears of love and joy. We look forward to every wedding, but when we get to meet the couple for the first time, (out of state residents who booked with us), it will be a truly special day to capture their love and their moments.

Tuesday Showers...

I first noticed the sky change from a that familiar blue we know and love to see on a summer day, to the threatening grey, dark with contrast and rich with electricity, while sitting in the Dam Cafe. Moments before the light rain drops turned to a flash flooding down pour of rain and hail, I made my way back to the car with a friend. The rain beat down so hard it was almost impossible to drive. Combined with these treacherous driving conditions, the streets quickly filled up with rivers and pools of water and ice. Within minutes the rain was washing away the beauty of the summer day and bringing with it a wake of destruction that left homes destroyed, cars inoperable and stuck in flooded out intersections, trees on roofs, and a building that looks like a massive ball bounced its way through, tearing the roof and walls apart. It is a day similar to June 1st, but will less damage. The fears of that day were re-instilled in many as they came out into their communities to witness and take a close look at what had happened. Holyoke, like Chicopee had a real sense of communal bonding as the members of each neighborhood came out to assist one another. "We as a community are helping each other," one man said to to me as I was passing by. "You should get a picture of that," he continued to say. I nodded my head and expressed that I had done so already while he was busy directing cars away from the flooded out underpass. In Chicopee, near my parents house, it was a similar story. Random people passing by, or out with intentions of helping and assisting those afflicted with damage, stopped with their equipment, chain saws and rakes and took liberty in helping people they did not know. If it is one positive thing that we can take from June 1st, it is the re-newed sense of neighbor and community. People unselfishly came to the assistance of people they did not know, asking for nothing more than a chance to help. Occasionally a news crew would pass, take notice of the damage and in their unbiased and less sympathetic view, narrated the story of what happened. More adventurous individuals toted their camera to grab the picture of the fallen tree. Not with intentions of telling the reality of the situation, but more so as a record of what happened. Some people, with no inhibitions, carefully exposed the vulnerability of the home owner by making a photograph of the front of their homes. Walking through my parents neighborhood, groups of people passed by with their cameras, pacing themselves stopping to view which house was worse, and occasionally wandering into backyards to see some of the more private damages that occurred. The power of the camera to record these moments is handed off as the image is uploaded to the computer from the card, shared with friends, family, and even neighbors. It was a sad sight to see the landscape having changed so quickly. It will take some time to rebuild, but brighter days will shine, as less trees are in place to block the sun.

Wednesday Evening Walk Through

Wednesday night was beautiful out. After doing a little bit of work in the studio, I took a stroll with my business partner through downtown capturing the setting light. We happened upon the site of the former Mastex building. During some of the demolition a portion of the building came down onto the sidewalk that was on the same side of the street as the building. As the heat broke, so did a section of the building, causing an issue that needed to be cleaned up. In a conversation with a police officer, he gave us a quick synopsis of what happened. The unit was stationed outside of the site to ensure no one would enter the site. As I stood next to the bright, almost glowing caution tape, I could hear the uneasy sounds of the building. It was a sad moan. The remaining fragments of the building stood sad, creaking, and moaning in discontent from having partially collapsed onto the sidewalk. The aroma of mill and post industrial manufacturing filled the immediate area. For me, that stench is familiar, as an explorer of a city rebuilding itself after its economical and industrial fallout, I have stood in many buildings that have similar sights, sounds, and displeasing smells. In a very short time, the landscape will, again, be permanently altered, as the new construction will soon rise in its place. 

The cool air that filled the city created some wonderful colors that helped illuminate the soft clouds. The light passing through the clouds was as much a subject matter as the elements of the city that were half lit by the setting sun. With the sun coming to a quick setting, our time seeing the city through the lens was also coming to an end. Dinner plans were in the works and we had standing reservations to get to. It was another beautiful evening in the city that turned to a great night.