Last Saturday I had to run over to Cincinnati’s west end to drop off something to a supplier and figured I’d shoot some stuff while I was out. I’ve had a list of shots I’ve wanted to get in that part of town for a while. Most importantly I wanted to sneak into an abandoned church next to my supplier’s shop. The First German Reformed Church along Freeman Avenue has been on my list for quite a while so I was excited over the prospect of shooting it. There’s only one way to “get in” to the abandoned church. A 24″ pathway between 2 buildings. I was a bit paranoid as I worked my way down the path, but as I got closer to the one opening I started to feel a bit cocky. I was actually getting ready to trespass to shoot an abandoned church. I was about 4 feet from the opening when I noticed fresh footprints in the snow right in front of me. I mean very fresh! If you know anything about Freeman Avenue in Cincinnati, you know it’s not a great place to be with a few grand in camera gear, in an abandoned building, where there MAY be someone with you! Well so much for the church. I chickened out and hit the road. I will however make my way back. I’ve just got to!

Not to be deterred by my willingness to stay alive I decided to hit some of the other spots I’ve been wanting to shoot. I’ve recently become interested in old signs and the west end of Cincinnati is filled with them. From an old brewery, a wide variety of churches and pawn shops to recent signs of “Hope”, the west end is filled with visual eye candy. Depending on your taste of eye candy of course!

Check out the entire gallery here. Enjoy!

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Super Bowl Sunday I ventured off to Green County, Ohio to capture 5 covered bridges. Thinking Green County is only about 50 minutes away, I figured I could get up the drive around the county, grab some nice snowy covered bridges and get back in time for kickoff. Wrong! For the first time,  my favorite website for locating bridges and barns sent me off in the wrong direction. 40 miles to be exact. I followed my trusty iPod GPS only to find myself in the middle of no where. I’ve been in the middle of no where before, and actually found what I was looking for, but not this time. No bridge. And not even a creek or river to put a bridge over!

I eventually found the bridge I was searching out, but the 80 mile round trip to the empty field didn’t help my schedule. All said and done, I ended up shooting the 5 bridges I went to shoot. My timing was way off though. I was out for seven and a half hours from my front door to Green County and back. I missed the first quarter of the game, but I figure there will be another Super Bowl next year, and who knows how long these bridges will be around.

Click here to see the Green County covered bridges and more. Enjoy!

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Last weekend we decided to run up to Dayton, Ohio to visit with my son and his wife and our grandson. It’s a quick one hour drive to Dayton so we try to get up and see them whenever we can. Along the drive I mentioned to Betsy there “may” be a covered bridge on the way and maybe I’d stop for a “quick” shot of the bridge. But really… I knew of a bridge and yet another Mail Pouch barn we may happen to “stumble” across!

All said and done our one hour drive to Dayton took about two and a half hours. Not only did I shoot the bridge and barn, but I also found a previously unknown Mail Pouch barn. I have such a understanding wife. Not only did she accept the fact I was dragging her along on another of my crazy “barn storming” trips, but she didn’t even complain when we got to Dayton and my son and I went off to find a Mail Pouch sign he had seen and wanted to show me! She’s great!

Here’s the entire gallery from our trip. Enjoy!

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The man I met while shooting the Elmwood Motel in Ulysses, Kentucky told me about this abandoned house on Route 23 outside of Louisa. Apparently it has quite a history as there are multiple websites referring to it’s past resident, Dr. Francis Elam Burgess. Born 1914. Physician, surgeon, poet and songwriter. I’m glad I ran across it when I did, in it’s “abandoned” state as it has recently been purchased and soon to be rennovated by Martin County entrepreneur Jim Booth.

I plan on keeping updated on the progress of the rennovation and would like to return someday to shoot the second life of this beautiful estate.

Take a look at the entire gallery here. Enjoy!

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I was in Columbus, Ohio this past week on a 2-day photo shoot with my boss. We were shooting his father’s collection of antique pharmacy products (gallery coming soon). Since we were going to be there for 2 days I of course looked into any Mail Pouch barns in the area. There are quite a few barns around the Columbus area but since I wasn’t driving and had to talk him into a diversion from our original mission, I had to find the closest barn to his parents house in Galena on the Hoover Reservoir. I located a barn a mere 16 miles away! Which to me, who will drive 150 miles to shoot a new barn, seemed reasonable.

After a peaceful night stay in the beautiful farmhouse he grew up in, and his father keeping us up late with “old timer” stories (meant to be respectfull not sarcastic) we were headed to breakfast then off to shooting more. I think Pete’s dad was rather confused as to why he had to wait for his breakfast so I could take a picture of some old barn, but he was a good sport about it. The drive from the farmhouse to the barn reminded me of my days in Minot, North Dakota. Cold, windy, flat lands with snow blowing across the roads. It was actually a beautiful drive and if I was alone I would have stopped quite a few times to shoot some barns and a couple of little churches spotted along the way. But we were on a mission, find one particular barn, then get Mr. White to breakfast! Thanks to Google maps and our iPhones with GPS we found the barn with no problems and they dropped me off to get some shots while they turned around. Wow, it was cold! But I was very thankful we made the trip because it turned out this barn was very nice, and I always love to shoot the red Mail Pouch barns.

On our return trip Pete and his dad messed with me being so into taking pictures of barns. I know in reality Pete understood, but I’m not sure his dad really did. As a matter of fact the rest of the day while we were at his pharmacy shooting he would mention to people, “You wouldn’t believe it, this morning we drove way out in the country, just so this guy could take a picture of a barn”. I enjoyed knowing that maybe from now on I will be part of one of Mr. White’s “old timer” stories!

I know this is a rather long story just to end up with more pictures of a Mail Pouch barn, but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed sharing it. I will be posting some of our photo shoot at White’s Pharmacy soon, of course with more “Mr. White” stories!

Here’s the rest of the barn shots. Enjoy!

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Just outside of Prestonsburg, Kentucky I drove past this house thinking it wasn’t much. But just around the corner I stopped for a Dew and decided to turn back around and take a closer look. I’m glad I turned around because I really enjoyed shooting this house, and I got to meet a Floyd County Sheriff! I thought I was headed to jail, but he turned out to be a nice guy. He did tell me to leave, but actually followed me around while I shot. It’s like he knew he should have made me leave, but wanted to let me stay. All said and done, he let me shoot everything I wanted to!

Here’s the rest of the gallery. Enjoy!

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I was on my way home after a very long day of shooting through east Kentucky not quite knowing how I was going to get home when I “stumbled across” Grayson, Kentucky. Which is the eastern end of the AA Highway, a straight shot home. Right as I pulled on the AA Highway I ran across this Mail Pouch barn. It’s always nice to be surprised by one of these, afterall I had spent my day driving 4 hours to shoot one further south (which I did), so this one a welcome added bonus for the day. The lighting was very bad. Almost dusk, just all around bad light but I wouldn’t walk away without shooting it. I will go back at some point and re-shoot this one.

Here’s the gallery with the rest. Enjoy!

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I found this little church on my way to Prestonsburg, Kentucky last week. I typically stop and shoot these “little white churches” and go on about my business. I often find them on my way home from a camping trip on Sunday mornings. I’ve thought many times about stopping and attending a service, but I’m paranoid they may be snake handlers! Joking aside, maybe one day I’ll work up the courage to stop in one of these little churches.

Here’s just a couple more. Enjoy!

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The Old National Highway runs 3,157 miles from Atlantic City to San Francisco. Last August I drove a small section of the historic road from Wheeling, West Virginia to Columbus, Ohio. Prior to my trip I researched Mail Pouch Barns along the highway and decided my trip would include some GPS guided photo shoots. This is a collection of 6 barns along the way. These barns are either on Route 40 or just off the main highway. There are quite a few more than I shot, but my son and I were on our way home from a 3 state, 7 skateparks weekend trip and we were ready to get home.

I have decided that if I ever have more money than I know what to do with I would buy this building and have the sign on the brick wall cut out and moved to my house. I’m not sure what I would do with it, maybe install it in my basement. After all I have more money than I know what to do with, so my basement has 12′ ceilings. Of course I’d have to talk my wife into it, and the chances of that are the same as me having more money than I know what to do with!

Here’s the entire Old National Highway gallery. Enjoy!

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For the past few years I’ve gotten up on New Years Day and gone out for an all day photo trip. This year I missed New Years Day by a couple of days. This gallery is from my first photo trip of 2010, January 3. My goal was to shoot a Mail Pouch barn in Adams County, Ohio. I did end up shooting that particular barn (Adams County barn), along with 3 others, a couple of Churches and some other barns. The last Mail Pouch Barn in the gallery is the only Mail Pouch Barn in the country with all four sides painted with Mail Pouch advertising. There are a few close-up shots of Harley Warrick’s signature.

Here’s my first road trip of 2010 gallery. Enjoy!

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