Time to hop the journal bandwagon and give birth to my own self-absorbed thread I s`pose.

Let's see...

Earlier today the wife and I drove in to Niagara Falls and UE`d a bunch of places we've not been to before, including the old Zippo Lighters plant, a long-abandoned department store...and an old nightclub we weren't sure whether it was still active or not (looked rather derelict). Just scouting trips, though....we didn't gain access to any of the sites - just photographed the exteriors during walkarounds.

I'm starting to run outta places here locally in Niagara region lately, having visited nearly every place imaginable (some many times). Very soon it'll be time to start hittin' the highway some more and expanding the horizons again. I'd love to find the time to get down to some of the northeastern states to check out a few old psyche hospitals...and of course East State Pen hopefully this summer.

So many places...so little time <sigh>

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You just never know what's up around the bend...

Silent Knight

Well, as much as I had ambitious plans to make a drive over to Hamilton today and check out the fire damage at the Stelco plant...instead I'm stuck at home waiting on the Ministry of Natural Resources to send an inspector out to deal with a possible asian longhorn beetle problem my neighbour encountered yesterday while cutting down a very old maple tree on his property.

Normally I wouldn't give much of a rat's ass about the situation, except for the fact we also have a 100-year-old maple tree on our property and we're rather concerned at this point whether the beetles have also invaded our tree. The tree towers about 50-60 feet over the neighbourhood and would easily crush the house into matchsticks if the beetles have weakened the innards of the tree enough that a wind could knock it down. So obviously its a situation we need to deal with ASAP.

At least it gives me some time to edit some of the photos I've been shootin' over the past few months. Makin' lemonade outta lemons, right ;)

Here's a few shots of the pesky little beetles - real sweethearts they are:

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As if dealing with the beetle infestation isn't enough, the real kicker is dealing with the City of Welland. A few weeks ago my neighbour called the city, told them about the condition of the old maple (basically the entire trunk was hollow and rotted away...and posed a serious safety issue), and had them send out a city inspector. The clown takes a look at the tree, determines that less than half of it is actually on city property - and then says there's nothing wrong with the tree and its completely safe.

So...according to this city inspector...1-2 inches of outside tree trunk holding up a 40-50 ton maple tree with the entire core rotted away is "safe". By that logic - the tree grows more safer each passing day as the beetles continue to burrow away at the wood.

Fortunately the tree has now been cut down before nature took its course and toppled it onto one of our houses, thus saving the city from a MAJOR lawsuit. Government, eh? Bah....what the f**k good are they anyways?

We're keepin' our fingers crossed that these beetles are a native strain rather than the most destructive asian longhorn variety (since our entire street has dozens of massive mature maple trees lining both sides) - but whatever they are they've already proven themselves rather destructive at this point.

Hoping for the best...

Silent Knight

Today was one of those 'better UE days'...

I started out heading for Stelco to check out the fire damage, and on the way stopped in at Jordan (Prudhomme's Landing) to photograph the abandoned Wet `n Wild amusement park. I'd only been there once years ago when it was still open, and hated the place. It was dirty, crowded...and within ten minutes of arriving my wife and I saw some fat kid puking next to the pool. We left shortly afterwards...vowing not to return (at least not while it was still open, heh).

The weather was fab - sunny with wispy clouds and low 70sF...just perfect for outdoor UEing. Spent an hour or so shootin' pics of the park, then headed next door to photograph an old abandoned house a few hundred yards away. Wasn't too interesting unless you're a fan of mosquitos.

http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?locid=20365&galid=11941 (my new pics of Wet `n Wild)
http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=21281 (and the abandoned house)

Continuing on from Jordan, I made my way to Hamilton and cruised along Barton St. - heading towards Stelco. After parking on a sidestreet behind the Detention Centre, I unloaded the mountain bike from the back of the truck and set out to circle around the Stelco building to check out the situation.

I soon discovered the old POE was now sealed with some steel reinforcement straps. Damn! My chances of getting interior shots of the fire damage seemed to dwindle. But after a little more scouting, I quickly found an entirely new POE (albeit a little riskier in plain view) - and returned to the truck to stash the bike and then walk back to the building.

Spent half an hour inside photographing the fire damage and roof collapse:

http://www.uer.ca/locations/viewgal.asp?locid=20645&galid=11940

along with a few outside shots of the northeast end where the fire was.

After leaving Stelco, I decided to retrieve the bike and tour a few streets in the industrial areas to see what else I could find. I stopped for a short time to watch an EMS ambulance crew attempt to load an elderly lady into an ambulance, only to drop the stretcher sideways on the ground with her on it! Happened right in front of me...not 20 yards away. Several firefighters also on the scene rushed over to help out the two EMS attendants. Although I had the camera with me, I just couldn't bring myself to take a shot of the old lady's misfortune, though. It was obvious she was badly shaken up, but they finally got her loaded and I headed off.

So, with the excitement over...I headed back to the truck and decided to drive a few blocks over to where the Haida destroyer is berthed just off Burlington St. I got permission from a construction foreman to walk alongside the ship and grab a few dozen photos. Then I spent half an hour talking to the foreman about the ship, the construction plans...and various things.

All in all...a very active and enjoyable UE day. Got some cool pics, added to the suntan a little - and the exercise never hurts either, heh.


Silent Knight

<modified - corrected links above>

Drove in to Toronto yesterday afternoon and spent the remainder of the day and evening photographing a half dozen various locations around the city, including the old Canada Malting plant, a Canadian Tire store on Sheppard & Leslie under demolition...and a bunch of other locations in my travels.

Making my way back to Niagara later in the evening, I stopped by the new Fallsview Casino to grab some night shots of the fountains and surrounding grounds.

Although I posted the Canada Malting plant pics to a new gallery in the LDB, I removed them this morning...along with all gallery pics in my other LDB entries. Personal reasons - please don't PM to ask why.

I won't be adding any new pics subsequently to the LDB or the forums.


Silent Knight

Posted by Avatar (quoting from journal entry) Should anything and everything I say be taken with so much power? I don't want it. But let me explain: A big contributer to this site recently took all of their photos offline, with no apparent explanation. He then emailed me and asked me to remove his account and any remaining photos. I was unclear as to what was going on, and asked why. As it turns out, it was I who started this event. A few days ago, I noticed a new gallery in the Canada Malt Plant location in the DB. They were a series of outdoor photos, showing the perimeter of the malt plant. I posted a comment in the last one, I don't remember the exact wording but it was something like "yay, another generic malt plant gallery" or something. The word "generic" was in there. This comment was supposed to be a joke, an attempt to poke at the large number of outdoor malt photos that there are. Now, I myself have several hundred outdoor malt photos, and the malt is one of my favourite buildings, which is why I thought the comment was funny. But the person in question took it much too seriously. I've already apologized via email to said person, but what I'm trying to point out in this journal post is: I'm just a regular guy. You shouldn't take what I say with more worth just because I run the site -- I'm no photography critic. I think most of my photos suck, I just post them because I enjoy taking them. If me calling your gallery "generic" makes you go so insane that you delete hundreds of photos, and want to remove yourself from the site, you seriously have some issues. I'm really not that important.

Although I had hoped this issue had remained private between Avatar and I - but after noticing his public journal posting about this and figuring it wasn't difficult for other members to 'connect-the-dots' - I now feel somewhat obligated to address a few comments.

I should preface this by saying I hold no hard feelings for Avatar. After a brief email exchange between us, I explained the reasons for my decision to remove my images, he apologized for his earlier comment...and as far as I was concerned it was case closed.

Let me explain a few things the way I did privately with Avatar regarding his comment about my photography.

The last time I heard the word "generic" in reference to my photography - it came from an unqualified college photography instructor in `91 - hired not by her qualifications or experience as a photographer, but simply because she was a close personal friend of the college Dean. She referred to one of my photo assignments as "generic and cliche calendar photography."

I generally have a thick skin and I'm not above honest critiques and unsolicited constructive criticism of my images. I'm not insecure about my work, otherwise I wouldn't be doing the large amount of adult photography I do for a living. Over the years I've received more than the lion's share of both positive and negative feedback about my images.

But...

Labeling photos as "generic" is simply dismissive of the effort - not constructive. Its counterproductive to the spirit of openly sharing images with others. Perhaps if there had been a wink or smiley emoticon included with the comment, I'd have simply replied back with an equally appropriate comeback. There wasn't. I interpreted Avatar's comment as being purely dismissive and disdainful of my attempt to share a few exterior pics of the Malt plant with everyone.

Contrary to Avatar's later assertion, my world doesn't revolve around his opinion of my photography. I post pics to share the images with others...not to elicit critiques. Modesty aside momentarily, I already know my level of skill as a photographer. My problem was with the fact that the fundamental difference between Avatar and I is that I wouldn't put down someone else's work simply because they took photos of a location I'd already photographed myself, even if the images were somewhat from the same perspective. I come from a community of professional photographers who generally find ways of offering a constructive critique rather than a blatant dismissal. With respect to Avatar's use of the term "generic", I took it as being synonymous with "insignificant".

I didn't "go insane" because of one comment, nor do I feel my decision to remove my images was "overboard" (quoting Avatar). I just have an issue with our differences in people skills.

The issue between us is now closed - as mentioned above it was resolved in pvt. email...and I appreciated and accepted Av's apology. I only wish it had remained private. I didn't wish to get into a public discussion over it all which is why I initially asked to simply have my account and remaining photos removed.


Silent Knight