Gary 2011

In what's becoming an annual thing for me, I visited Gary Indiana this past Sunday. 6 photographers, 3 models and 1 husband/sherpa spent the whole day either driving or photographing.

We left town around 9 am after waiting a bit for a some folks. After a quick stop in Holland to pick up another photog, we spent a little over two hours on the road. Arriving at our first destination, the old Lutheran Cathedral, who do I spot, but another GR photographer. He had driven down that morning to show a couple of other photographers around. While we were in the church it seemed like a constant stream of photographers and locals came through. During the 2-3 hours we spent there, it seemed like at least 6-8 other groups of photographers showed up. Unfortunately, people have been taking metal out of the church to sell, and it's getting even more decrepit than it was. While we still had plenty of opportunities to continue photographing in the church, we had other places to go, so somewhat reluctantly we left.

Next stop was the old Screw and Bolt factory. One of the photogs thought he saw someone in the building when we first got there, but we never saw them again. Of course we were making enough noise to scare anyone off. We spent some time here before heading to the last stop of the day, the old post office.

I wasn't really impressed at the post office as I had thought. Very little of the fixtures are left, though I did find the old cabinetry behind a sales window. Other than that it was pretty uninspiring. We really did not spend more than an hour here total before we decided it was time to head home.

On the ride home, we stopped for dinner at a pizza place in Chesterton whose name I didn't get. Great service and great pizza. I'm going back the next time I'm in the area.

We got home around 12 hours after we had left. I was tired and sore. A quick shower to wash the dust off, and I was ready for bed. I started copying the cards on the computer and then hit the sack.

I was somewhat surprised at myself for spending so much of my time photographing the models. I had planned to focus on architectural details, especially at the factory. But that didn't happen. I do want to spend some more time there in the future.

All in all, it was a great day. A good group of folks to hang out with, and the models were great to work with. The locals we ran into were friendly, we even got asked if we were making a movie. I want to go back and hang out in the area some more.