Even though I still don’t have a car, it hasn’t stopped me from moving forward. Through all the weeds, I managed to finish my seventh MBA class and get a respectable compliment from my Professor on my public speaking skills, making more money than I thought off my vinyl collection and lastly, finding new found inspiration.
With the limit resources I have with travelling I decided to go back to familiar places. My parents live in Northampton Pennsylvania and in order to get to their house you drive on Willow Brook Road. When they first moved there, this road was in shambles. Even if you had your seat belt on, you were bouncing around everywhere. Also there were homes, farms, and a little community located on the road. Throughout the years, I have seen these homes meet their demise. I haven’t researched it, but what I heard was that the airport bought out the land, and paid the citizens living there to move out.
There is still a home on the land, a barn, and if you look closely other homes in the distances. I have never adventured out to the middle of the field, but your imagination can run wild as to why it is still standing. Maybe government testing? Who knows, this could be a starting point for a horror or sci-fi movie though. Regardless, there is this barn and home still standing, which back then could’ve been an amazing home. When I first saw this monstrous house, I thought, “I would love to live there.” Of course it would have to be fixed up.
I always wanted to go inside and take photos, but since it is a location with heavy car traffic it is possible someone will call the cops. Also there are “No Trespassing” signs. A few years back some kids were messing with fire and burnt down the one farm shed. I actually saw the cop speaking to the kids and the fire. I have never been that close to a huge fire before and the heat was intense.
I decided to stop and take a few photos recently, but just a few because once I become a better photographer I want to come back and take better photos. The structure of the home is just beautiful. I can’t believe something like this is just sitting there. I also took a photo of the field across the street. Since I don’t have Photo Shop anymore I tried to find a way to do DIY HDR photography. As you can see, not the best, but I’m learning. I am not a huge fan of HDR photography, but I felt the photo needed to “pop”. Kind of looks bad, but that’s the point of showing it to the world. This is a blog showing my progress with taking photos.
After looking at these photos I thought, what kind of style do I want? Luck may have it; I bought a book at Ollie’s for dirt cheap, $6.99. It is a black and white photography book by photographers Susan Daley and Steve Gross called Time Wearing Out Memory. It captures the abandoned structures of Schoharie County, New York. There are some amazing photos in this book, and I hope to visit this county. Looking through this book I decided I wanted my style to mock them with a little bit of Sir Simon Marsden. Do a search on his work, just stunning. Going forward, I think I will start to see some improvement in my work.
Lastly, my faith in new bands has been restored. Driver Friendly has not just got me excited to listen to new music again, but also put my faith back into Hopeless Records. This band is just amazing, they aren’t ska but they have horns and the lyrics are fresh and exciting. I can’t wait for a full length. Maybe I will get to photograph them sometime. I feel the next couple of weeks, maybe months will be exciting, these “artists” have given me new light into inspiration and I am going to hold onto it.
“It’s not death that scares us, it’s the ghosts we cannot see that scares us”
Time Wearing Out Memory: http://www.amazon.com/Time-Wearing-Out-Memory-Schoharie/dp/0393066444
Favorite Sights & Sounds 
Familiar places are the key to inspiration. And sometimes we have to remember to go back to them when inspiration is lost. We search everyday in all aspects of our life to find the color, the happiness, and the reason we keep living, but sometimes, it is those places we have already been that have been waiting for us to come back, to make us remember why we love what we do, and to make us feel like we are ready to explore the rest of the world, fully inspired.
Well said.