WALKER'S POINT DECREPITUDE

For the past several years Walker's Point, a neighborhood south of downtown Milwaukee, has been undergoing a gentrification, with construction of upscale condos and repurposing of abandoned factories and warehouses as restaurants and funky retail outlets.  But the neighborhood still has its share of buildings in need of repair or updating.  Recently, I spent some time in the neighborhood with my camera looking for a little decrepitude.

The first shot is of an opening in a wall of a building that had been boarded over at some point in the past.  This was in an alley between buildings, by the way.  All in all a bit creepy.

I liked this opportunity for the three different colors that the boards had been painted for some reason and the subsequent failure of that paint.  After thinking about the options for a while, I decided to capture it on an angle.  But after experimenting with just showing the painted boards, I decided to expand the shot to reveal portions of the surrounding concrete borders, if only for context.

I was attracted to the following shot for the shadows being cast by the vine extending in front of the painted concrete wall.

I focused on the vine but decided that I also wanted to maintain detail in the failed paint on the concrete blocks.  So I narrowed the aperture to f/16.  The steel cable was still  a bit out of focus, but I didn't think that was a big deal.

I liked the following shot of a hasp and padlock arrangement because of the variety of textures that it included--and because of the overall decrepitude.

The last three shots are of handles that had witnessed a good deal history.

For this last shot I played around with just including the handle and none of the blue-green metal border.  But in the end I thought including not just the color border but the stonework to the right helped to tell a bit more of the story.

John

ST. STEPHEN LUTHERAN CHURCH

I have driven past St. Stephen Lutheran Church hundreds of times.  The church, which has a prominent steeple, sits just to the east of the north-south freeway in the Walker's Point neighborhood, south of downtown Milwaukee.  From the outside the building appears to be in a long-term state of neglect, and I finally decided that it might be interesting to attempt to capture some classic architecture in a state of decline.  I had assumed that St. Stephen's, if still active, was a a Catholic church, but, in fact, it is and always has been a Lutheran church.

The building has an interesting history.  It was first built at its current location in 1866, with a steeple featuring a four-faced tower added in 1879.  With major repairs looming the congregation razed the church (except for the tower) and rebuilt it in its present form in 1901.  At that time the tower was preserved and refaced in red brick to match the new building.

The day I photographed the church was sunny (and relatively warm).  But there were still challenges. First, the interior was locked and inaccessible, so I was limited to the exterior.  Moreover, only two sides, the south and west, were accessible.  The other two sides were behind fences.  Still, it was fun to look for photographic opportunities.

Here, first, is a not very good photo of the entire church, taken from the southwest.

The main entrance faces to the west.  (Note the change in spelling from "Stephan's" to Stephen's.")

Note the stonework in the pillars on either side of the entrance.  Nice.

As mentioned, the tower features a four-sided clock.

Which appears to be in good repair--and keeping reasonably accurate time.

The church appears to feature very fine stained glass windows.  Prominent is the large window on the south side of the transept.

Here are some detail shots of that window.

The church also features some interesting stonework, particularly above the keystones of the gothic windows and doorways, such as the following.

John

LAKE SMOKE

Milwaukee has experienced a long cold snap with temperatures not reaching 20 degrees for nearly two weeks.  Because Lake Michigan has not iced over, the water temperature is significantly higher than the air temperature.  The result is "sea smoke" or in this case "lake smoke"--a layer of fog extending several hundred feet above the surface of the lake beginning a a few miles offshore.  This is a temporary seasonal phenomenon that lasts only as long as the bitter cold continues and until the lake water freezes over or drops to very close to freezing.

The current cold snap is due to end, so I thought I had better take a shot at photographing the lake smoke while it is available.  This meant getting down to the lakefront before sunrise.  I did this once before 8-10 years ago, but I am always trying to better what I have done previously.  So Saturday morning I got down to the Lakefront south of downtown by 7:15 a.m. (sunrise was at 7:23 a.m.).  The air temperature was 3 degrees below zero, but the 10-15 mph wind brought the windchill down to the 15-20 below range.  In other words, bitter cold.

The location I chose included an old shoreline lighthouse and a U.S. Coast Guard station located at the end of a breakwater in the lake around 3/4 miles out from the shore.  Here are a few of the photos that I took as I was rapidly freezing.

First, a couple of photos of the lighthouse, which I assume is no longer in use.

These were shot after sunrise but before the sun had risen above the top of the sea smoke, creating some very attractive "warm" light.

Note in the second photo an individual standing at the base of the lighthouse tower.  There were quite a few other photographers at the location with the same idea as me.  In fact, a couple guys had the fortitude to spend perhaps 20-30 minutes standing out in the cold with their equipment, including tripods, waiting for just the right moment.  I had brought my tripod but did not have the patience or endurance to use it.  As a result, these photos have some technical deficiencies.

I also took a number of shots of the Coast Guard station on the breakwater.  I liked the following shot because it nicely highlights the lake smoke.

I spent some time playing around with the files in post processing and came up with the following image in which I tried to keep the Coast Guard station in decent focus but let the surrounding lake and fog go "soft."  This is how it came out.

John