Going to show that you never know what you’ll find at the thrift store…
4 minute read
July 30, 2017, 2:39 AM
It’s amazing what you find sometimes when you hit the thrift store. Case in point, at Unique Thrift Store/Value Village in Hillandale Shopping Center, Elyse and I found this:
Continue reading…Categories: Cameras, Elyse, Retail, Silver Spring, Today's Special
A lovely little road trip to West Virginia and back…
6 minute read
July 23, 2017, 3:53 AM
This past Wednesday, Elyse, Aaron Stone, and I took a little road trip to Jefferson County, West Virginia. There was some stuff for all of us, as Aaron wanted to see some stuff that Elyse and I had seen before, I wanted to see some stuff that I had spotted in some Instagram pix, plus wanted to get newer photos of some areas where I had been before.
But first, food. We designed our trip to take us to Sunshine General Store, which is this little hole in the wall restaurant north of Brookeville, at the intersection of Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues. Their hamburgers are to die for – thick and juicy. However, you really have to know that they’re there, because at first glance, the place looks abandoned.
After we had our hamburgers, we headed over to Brighton Dam. The intent was to get some new photos of the dam, but much to my surprise, a dam rehabilitation project was underway, and the park where you got the best views of the dam was closed in order to accommodate the construction work. The level of Triadelphia Reservoir was much lower as well, presumably because of the dam project, and from the looks of the now-exposed land, it had been lower for quite a while:
Triadelphia Reservoir, with the lower water level. Compare to the water level in April 2014.
Categories: Elyse, Frederick, Friends, Montgomery County, West Virginia
Red Line to Grosvenor…
4 minute read
May 17, 2017, 11:52 PM
You may be aware that in February, Metro began retiring the Breda 4000-Series railcars, starting with 4054 and 4055. While most of the retired cars will likely be sold for scrap, not all of them will. When 4089 was retired, it was cut up and converted into vendor kiosks, intended for use at Grosvenor-Strathmore station. Today was the first day of this pop-up market, which will run at least through the end of June, and eventually be incorporated into a new development at Grosvenor station.
So Elyse, Elyse’s father Joe, and I gave it a look. The car is cut up into different sections, with the various sections arranged around the station entrance. Here’s an overview of one side of the setup:
Categories: Elyse, Montgomery County, WMATA
“Hello! Welcome!”
3 minute read
March 9, 2017, 12:03 PM
You may recall from the Pittsburgh photo set that Elyse has an interest in elevators. I find them interesting as well, though to a lesser extent than Elyse and others. However, I always enjoy seeing an unusual specimen, like the pop-out buttons on the elevators at the Investment Building in Pittsburgh.
This elevator, at the United Office Building in Oxon Hill, takes the cake for interesting features. Check it out:
Categories: Maryland, Virginia, Washington DC, WMATA
Returning to Scott’s house…
7 minute read
December 30, 2016, 11:29 PM
You know how it goes when you have like-minded friends. On December 28, Elyse and I got together with mutual friend Aaron Stone, and we took a field trip to the Baltimore area, revisiting various places of interest in order to show Aaron, including the Ames at Diamond Point Plaza and Scott’s house. The way that we planned the trip, since our main objectives were mostly dependent on having daylight, the plan was to spend a little time at Diamond Point, a little bit of time at H&H Outdoors (a military surplus store in Baltimore), and then have a large block of time at the Bauers’.
The Ames at Diamond Point was, for the most part, unchanged from our previous visit. We spotted a set of movable stairs near the front of the store that wasn’t there in our previous visits, but otherwise, it was the same:
Categories: Baltimore, Elyse, Friends, Howard County, Urban exploration, Vintage business
Painting pottery…
4 minute read
November 16, 2016, 12:21 AM
The day before Elyse and I went to Pittsburgh, we got together with our friend Dave, whom we know through transit-enthusiast circles, and we went over to Color Me Mine in Rockville. This is one of those places where they have premade pieces of pottery for customers to paint in the store, and then they glaze and fire it all afterward, and you pick it up a week or so later.
Going in, Elyse and Dave both picked train-shaped coin banks for painting. I got a big plate, because I felt more like drawing, and thus I got myself a nice, blank canvas to paint.
But first, here are Elyse and Dave at the table:
Categories: Elyse, Fire alarms, Friends, Rockville, SEPTA
A day trip to Ocean City that definitely felt rushed…
9 minute read
October 23, 2016, 1:20 PM
On Monday, October 10, I finally visited Ocean City, Maryland and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. You would think, having lived in Maryland for nine years, that I would have gotten out there before this, but better late than never, I suppose.
This was a trip where the journey was probably more interesting than the destination itself. I’m also pretty confident that we did not meet my usual rule for a trip where you should spend as much time at the destination as it takes to get down there and back. I also felt rushed when we actually got to the destination, but I suppose that such is what happens sometimes. However, with this being an “overview” trip, where the goal was just to get a feel for what was there for future exploration, meeting my time rule wasn’t as important as it might otherwise be.
In any case, we left a little later than I would have liked, and the trip began fairly uneventfully. Things went smoothly until we made a planned stop at the Wawa near Annapolis. There, my low tire pressure light came on as we were getting ready to leave. Okay. Wawa has free air, so no problem. The way that I figured, it had been a while since the last time that I had checked the tire pressure, so one of them may have reached the threshold for the warning light from normal whatever. So I topped off the tires. The left rear tire was a bit lower than the others, but the light went away. Cool. Problem solved. Continue on trip.
After going over the Bay Bridge (my first time), I learned far more than I expected about center pivot irrigation systems from Elyse. If it tells you anything, I’m no longer surprised when I learn that Elyse knows a lot about something medical or industrial. But her information always checks out. In this case, I learned about the different brands of center-pivot irrigation systems, and how to distinguish between them. The main brands are Valley, Reinke (pronounced like “rinky”) and Zimmatic. Those names, for whatever reason, made me think of the Pac-Man ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde/Sue. I said, “Valley, Reinke, Zimmatic… and Sue.” Maybe you had to be there, but we got a laugh out of it. In any case, though, you saw a lot of them, as the Delmarva Peninsula has a lot of farmland.
Categories: Delaware, Elyse, Ocean City
Amazing how some things never change…
3 minute read
September 21, 2016, 10:04 AM
It’s always amazing how some things never change. Back on August 25, Elyse and I were photographing trains at the MARC station in Gaithersburg. After the train departed, I captured this photo of a flurry of people walking across the tracks before the gates went up:
Categories: Montgomery County, MTA Maryland
I have been to Pennsylvania a lot lately…
14 minute read
August 27, 2016, 6:27 AM
In the span of two weeks, Elyse and I went to Pennsylvania three different times. We went to Hanover on the 8th, Harrisburg on the 11th, and then Harrisburg again on the 18th. Two of the trips were to scout out some potential sites for photography, as well as get something out of our system from the earlier bus trip, and then one was to bring the bus back for my friend.
The first trip was to Hanover. This was one of those “seeing America” kind of trips, about catching a shot of whatever we found interesting, as well as scouting locations for further attention with our SLR cameras when the weather was more accommodating (it was hot and humid out – yuck). Elyse met me at my house, and then we left for Hanover via Westminster. On the way up to Westminster, we both knew about a certain street off of Georgia Avenue in Carroll County near Eldersburg and Sykesville (yes, I refer to Route 97 as “Georgia Avenue” all the way up to Gettysburg), and had to get a photo of it with Elyse. Check it out:
Categories: Amtrak, Companies, Driving, Elyse, Food and drink, Friends, Hanover, Harrisburg, National politics, Pennsylvania, Railroads, School buses, West Virginia, Westminster
Had never traveled a business Interstate before…
9 minute read
July 24, 2016, 8:55 PM
…and now I have. Elyse and I made an impromptu road trip to York, Pennsylvania on Thursday, July 14. We got together in Ellicott City, but didn’t know quite what we wanted to do, and so we ended up doing that.
However, our first stop was a completely unplanned one, in Catonsville. There, the McDonald’s in 40 West Plaza recently closed, and was in the process of being vacated. At the time that we came by, they had started roofing over the McDonald’s-style mansard, and removed the signage, and were packing stuff up inside.
Categories: Baltimore County, Elyse, Fire alarms, Roads, York
A principal has egg on her face…
6 minute read
June 14, 2016, 6:10 AM
As someone who was on the receiving end of some pretty unfair punishments in school, and having witnessed school officials blatantly flout the rules on a number of occasions, it’s good to see someone get called out for a punishment that’s out of step with policy. This was the culmination of a controversy regarding several students’ drinking alcohol on prom night at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School‘s senior prom, and the reversal of a decision that would have prevented them from attending their high school graduation.
The situation, as I understand it based on a Bethesda Magazine article and a Washington Post article, began with a policy set at the school level regarding consequences for students’ showing up for prom while impaired by alcohol or other various substances, or becoming impaired by the same over the course of the evening, encompassing the prom itself as well as the official after-prom party. The school’s policy was that anyone who either was caught drinking at prom-related activities, or showed up to same already drunk, would not be allowed to walk at the school’s June 1 graduation at DAR Constitution Hall. This is supported by a prom guest application document from the school’s website, where the relevant section, near the bottom of the second page, reads:
Students and/or guests who are suspected of being under the influence of alcohol, inhalants, illegal drugs or controlled substances will not be admitted to Prom or After Prom. Students attending Prom or After Prom who show signs of being under the influence of such substances, or who are found to be in possession of such substances during either event, will be subjected to the consequences set forth in the B-CC Student Handbook, and their parents will be notified. If the student is part of an athletic team or other school-sponsored activity, the coach/sponsor will be notified as well. Note that any senior who is determined to be under the influence or in possession of such substances when arriving at or during the course of Prom or After Prom will not participate in the on-stage distribution of diplomas at B-CC’s graduation ceremony.
Categories: DC area local news, Events, Montgomery County, School
A few more thoughts about “Scott’s House”…
3 minute read
April 24, 2016, 8:05 PM
Today, I released the “Scott’s House” set in Photography, which covers the visit that Elyse and I made to the former home of Scott Alan Bauer back in March. While the photo set gave a somewhat dry presentation of what Elyse and I found in the house, the preparation of that set raised a lot of questions that I will likely never get answers to, mostly revolving around the mystery of what exactly happened to this family.
From what I could tell, the house, in its final form, was home to only one person: Scott Bauer himself. Only the master bedroom contained a bed, one bedroom had no furniture in it to speak of, and the third bedroom had clearly been converted to an office at some point. In the bedroom-turned-office, some of the paperwork made me think that this home, leading up to its abandonment in late 2002, was not as happy as it once was. One of the documents was a statement from Howard County social services regarding past due child support. So it would appear that a divorce had occurred, and things had not been going well since. Likewise, on an MVA notice, Bauer had insurance and emissions violations regarding his truck. Makes me wonder if he had major financial problems in his final years at the house.
In any case, what caused Bauer to ultimately abandon the house and all of his belongings, as well as what happened to him afterward, remains a mystery.
Categories: Howard County, Photography, Urban exploration
Exploring an abandoned house…
6 minute read
March 20, 2016, 7:21 PM
This past Thursday, Elyse and I explored an abandoned house in the Elkridge area of Howard County. This was my first “real” venture into urban exploration, and also the first “operational” photo shoot with the new Nikon SLR. I have had at least a casual interest in urban exploration for a long time, but never did a full-on exploration before. The closest things to urban exploration that I had done prior to this were visiting the buildings on Afton Mountain on several different occasions (but not penetrating them very much, if at all, on any of these occasions), and also that relatively brief visit to Lorton Reformatory last year. Elyse, on the other hand, has a good bit of experience over a number of years with urban exploration. So I was in good hands here. After all, Elyse clearly looked and acted like she knew what she was doing in Lorton, while I was more the clueless sidekick, as I didn’t know what I was doing, and was more or less unprepared for that one.
This time, I was ready. I had a headlamp like Elyse had at Lorton along with a few other flashlights, plus, remembering the strong smell of mold at Afton Mountain, I brought a respirator that I used to carry in my backpack to protests back in my activism days, but never used in that context. I also brought some rubber gloves so that I wouldn’t have to actually touch anything with my bare hands. I didn’t know what had been growing on anything at that house, so the gloves gave me more freedom to actually touch things that I wouldn’t otherwise be willing to do.
We had to do a short, but mostly uphill, hike to get to the house, and here it is:
Categories: Cameras, Elyse, Howard County, Photography, Urban exploration
Testing out a new camera…
5 minute read
February 28, 2016, 2:44 PM
So I finally got a new camera, with its arriving at the beginning of this month. I got a Nikon D5300, and got a zoom lens along with it, as well as a new camera bag (i.e. I’m not going to use Big Mavica‘s old bag anymore). I didn’t test a D5300 when I tested a whole bunch of cameras with Elyse, because it wasn’t available. But I tested a number of different models around it. While this one did everything that most SLRs do, this one also had a fliparound screen like the D5500 that I tested, but being an earlier model, didn’t have the price tag of the D5500. It also had built-in GPS, which I find extremely useful, and that none of the cameras that I tested earlier had.
In case you weren’t aware, I contribute quite a bit to Panoramio. You know how you see photos in Google Earth and Google Maps? Panoramio is how a lot of those photos make their way in there. You upload photos, and then you tag the location on a map. The problem comes when I’m shooting a lot of photos in an area that I may not be very familiar with. I’m talking about things like my trip to Richmond in 2013, various trips to Chicago, High Rock, and the like. In those cases, the way I would typically shoot photos would be to take whatever photos with my real camera, and then grab my cell phone and take a quick reference shot. The reason for this was that the phone had GPS, but my real camera didn’t. That worked well enough, but it created extra work both onsite and in post-production. Onsite, I had to take an extra photo with a different camera, and ensure that GPS had gotten a lock on the position. Then in post-production, I had to coordinate the two photos, reading the tag on one photo in order to manually place the photo that’s actually getting published in the right spot. If it sounds like a pain, it’s because it is. Now that my real camera has GPS on it as well, everything has a location tag on it, which makes my life that much easier.
Also, since it’s come up before, a point of clarification: just because the camera has onboard GPS does not mean that the camera will give you directions. GPS is a network of satellites operated by the United States government that provides location and time information to users with a GPS receiver. It is not inherently a navigation system, though the way most people talk about it, you would think that it was. Just thought I’d put that out there.
Categories: Amtrak, Baltimore, Cameras, Elyse, MTA Maryland
Getting a “big boy” camera…
6 minute read
January 20, 2016, 1:44 PM
Last Thursday was a lot of fun. I got together with Elyse, with the intent of getting some sample material to evaluate for the future purchase of a new camera. This new camera will be a digital SLR, as I am quite confident that I have outgrown the “prosumer” level of camera that I have operated on since Big Mavica in 2002. I discovered that in 2014 when I photographed Brighton Dam and Triadelphia Reservoir with a borrowed Nikon Coolpix P510. The photos with that camera came out well enough, but other than a few extra pixels because of the higher resolution on that camera, I didn’t get any better features than my existing camera.
But first, after Elyse and I got together, we had lunch at Jimmy John’s. I had a sandwich, and Elyse just had one of the day-old rolls that they sell:
Categories: Cameras, Elyse, Food and drink, Maryland, Retail