iPhone Photography – Page 7 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 15 – Hoosier National Forest

While examining a digital satellite map image of the forested area near my operational base in Indiana, I noted one area designated as a wilderness, so I decided to drive into that area and check it out.

All of the photos in this post are via my iPhone.

I pulled off of the forest road through the Hoosier National Forest on my way to check out the Charles C. Deam Wilderness area at a camping/picnic area to look around. There were restroom facilities, shelters, picnic areas and a few visitors. I noted a hiking trail that went into the forest from here, but I did not take time to check it out. There were a few colorful trees in near peak fall color, so I made a few iPhone images, with the one above the best.

I continued down the forest roadway, spotting a number of “No Parking” signs along the way.

This roadway is narrow, so parking along it would impede traffic and probably would create a danger, since visibility over hills and around curves is limited and one could easily crash into a parked vehicle that appears suddenly in the narrow roadway. The $80 fine seems steep, but maybe necessary to discourage parking here.

I found a parking lot just off of this roadway at an old fire lookout tower that is no longer in use, but open for visitors to climb.

Descriptive Sign, Hoosier National Forest, Oct 2021

Apparently, there were farmlands in this area at one time, but those have been taken over by the forest, after this area was designated a wilderness area.

An old fire lookout tower, Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, Fall 2021

I chose to climb the 133 steps to the top to get an overview of this area. As I started up the first flight of stairs, I had second thoughts about my choice as the stairs wobbled with each step. After a brief hesitation, I continued the climb.

Near the top of the tower, I noted that someone else had the same reaction as I did to the wobbly stairs.

A view from an old lookout tower, Hoosier National Forest, Fall 2021

I shot a few iPhone photos from the observation floor of the tower. Being above treetop level, I had a good overview of the vast forest around the tower.

A panoramic view from an old lookout tower, Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, Fall. 2021

After enjoying the view, it was time to descend the “sketchy” stairs and get my feet back on firm ground.

I saw a trailhead marker near the tower, so I walked over to check it out. I was not prepared to hike in this wilderness today, but I decided to come back another day for more exploration.

Near a trailhead into the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, Indiana, Fall 2021

Information Sign, Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, Fall 2021

There was an old road beginning at the end of the tower parking lot that was blocked off with a steel gate. I walked over to take a look down the roadway and found this sign about an old cemetery that was apparently here prior to the wilderness designation. There was no indication of how far it was to the cemetery, but I decided to walk the roadway, hoping to find something interesting.

I found remnants of old structures that were mentioned in the information sign at the tower and continued to walk the roadway for awhile. I never found any indication of how far it was to the cemetery and I eventually turned back, since I did not see any noteworthy reason to continue.

This final image, looking into the wilderness woodland, was taken somewhere along the route.

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 5

Antique automobile related items always catch my eye.

I do not recall Mickey Mouse advertising Sunoco products. Do any readers recall this?

I see lots of these old glass motor oil containers, but these were before my time. I’ve never seen these in use. I’m guessing these date to the time motor oil came in bulk containers, like metal barrels or drums and the oil was dispensed into these containers, which were then used to pour the oil into an automobile engine.

Richlube was produced by Richfield Oil Company based in California.

Judging by the price tags, these must be popular with collectors.

Maybe these galvanized cans came into vogue after the glass bottles? I can’t recall seeing these in use, either. The glass bottles were probably superior in keeping the oil clean and uncontaminated, but were obviously not as durable as metal containers.

The bottles are more esthetically appealing than the galvanized cans.

The tiger on the Power-Lube bottle made me think this is from the early days of Exxon/Esso, but research seems to indicate that a company called Powerline (of Denver, Colorado?) may have produced or at least marketed this oil. Anyone out there know the history of this product?

The Farmall bottle must have been an advertising item, since as far as I know that company never refined motor oil, but might have marketed oil with its brand on it. I do not find any information online regarding any such motor oil product.

This vendor had lots of these old motor oil bottles.

Magnolia Petroleum Company of Texas was acquired by Standard Oil in the early 1900.

Over the years most of the early petroleum companies have been acquired or merged with others, so today only a handful of major oil companies remain.

I’ll leave with this:

This name does not seem to fit the message, but any place with this name would discourage me from visiting.

I’m finally done with the killing time photography for this trip so stay tuned for fall color and landscape photos from Indiana.

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 4

More iPhone photos from antique stores.

Glassware of all sorts and colors are in plentiful supply is such places.

Monochrome conversions often work well for images of the glassware.

Wooden crates are common offerings in antique stores. I’m old enough to recall the time when these crates were used and most soft drinks came in glass bottles, rather than cans or plastic bottles. These crates were useful for sitting on, when placed on end and it was not uncommon to see these used in such a fashion.

I do not recall these Campbell soup crates in use.

Instead of an RC cola and a moon pie, how about an RC and a vinyl record?

Later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 3

This is continuation of the iPhone photography in Indiana antique stores during the early days of our two week fall stay in Indiana.

Older photographic equipment always gets my attention. I’m glad I do not have to use those items.

Some of those pictured in this poster, seem to be misclassified as Rock and Roll musicians. After noting one such collage of these bad criminals, I began to see these more often in this area.

Bad guy entertainers may be unpopular here, but alcoholic beverage items are prominently celebrated.

And Bing Crosby is ok.

I started this post with pottery items, so maybe I should end it with pottery.

More later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

This is the third year of visiting Indiana in the fall. The first visit was mostly to attend a few of the Covered Bridge Festivals, visit my wife’s relatives and see the fall color. We were about a week too early for the fall colors during the first visit. We visited a little later in the fall last year and we were late for the fall color peak. Many of the larger trees were already bare, thanks to a storm that came through the week prior to our visit. We thought we had the perfect timing this year, but we were early, fall color was late. Most of the trees were still mostly green and just barely beginning to show some color.

We were staying two weeks this year, so I decided there was no need to rush out to photograph. I could wait a few days and hope for the color to arrive before we departed for home.

During the early days of our time here, I went out with my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law to do those things they wanted to do. The first full day we were here was the last day of the Covered Bridge Festivals, so we went to one of those that day.

I’m not convinced that this sign conveys what the creator and seller of this product intended. It seems to suggest that there may already be indications of health issues associated with tobacco smoke. Wouldn’t effective advertising avoid bringing attention to any possible risk to using a product?

The following early days of this visit we drove to antique malls or stores, which the others liked to browse. These drives allowed me to monitor the fall color progression and I used my iPhone to practice getting mostly indoor photos of various objects in the antique places.

I could, at least, reminisce about watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

The one on the left might shoot the other two, so maybe they were not amigos?

Surely, the Wicked Witch of the West wore these in The Wizard of Oz?

More next,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 1

Early in our stay in Indiana in late October, 2021, I looked out the window and saw that it was a foggy morning. I walked to the roadway in front of the cabin to check out the scene.

I only had my iPhone with me, so I used it to snap a few images in the early morning fog.

Just a reminder that all of the images in this post are via an older iPhone, so if that is all you have with you, use it!

Later,

Ken

Kentucky, Fall 2021

On our way to Indiana in the fall of 2021, my wife and I stayed a couple of days in a small Kentucky town, where she was born. Her sister and brother in law from Florida met us there. There are few relatives left here, but their genealogy runs back many years in this area. Chasing that genealogy was part of the incentive for this brief visit.

When not visiting the local library and graveyards, we killed a little time visiting an antique store a few miles outside of town. Since I could not be out shooting local landscapes and/or farm scenes here, I consoled myself with making a few images of old antique items with my iPhone.

In the parking lot of the antiques store an old GMC truck, with the store name painted on the passenger side door, drew my attention. It appears that this truck had been sitting for years in one location and had to be rescued from a tree that had grown between the front bumper and the body. The windshield interior is covered with mildew, which seems appropriate for the cloudy, rainy day.

Near the truck were a couple of old, rusty farm implements.

Inside the store, I snapped a few images of some of the old items offered for sale.

I drank Orange Crush soft drink from a short, dark brown bottle in my very young days, but I never saw it in these screw top jars. Maybe these predate those more common little, brown bottles?

Ball Mason jars seem to be one of the most common items found in these type stores.

I can actually remember some older folks having these old radio and/or record players (bottom pull out here) in their homes, when I was a young child.

Other frequently found items are old wooden crates for bottled beverages and/or liquor.

Creative, crafty people sometimes come up with unique ideas for transforming antiques into whimsical items, like the sewing machine tractor in the image above. This was a first for me, I had never seen this done anywhere else. There were a couple of these in this store. The other was labeled as a John Deere.

On to Indiana next,

Ken

Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Texas, July 2021, Part 1

On my return trip from the Grand Canyon North Rim, my first overnight stay was near Gallup, New Mexico at Red Rocks Park. There were large red rock formations around the park and I thought this would be a good place to check out. It was not a bad place to stay for one night, but much less interesting than I had anticipated. At least the weather was mild, due to overcast and rain during the day, just before I arrived at the park, then a booming thunderstorm at night.

My second overnight was at Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo. I had been through the park many years ago, but never spent much time here. My campsite was deep into the canyon. Even though it was late July, the weather was only mildly hot in the day and cooled down nicely at night.

After settling in, I walked around the area to scout potential locations for sunset and possibly sunrise photography. All of the scouting images in this post were made with my iPhone.

The Sportsmobile in Palo Duro Canyon Campsite.

As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.

Visitors to this area have a penchant for carving into the rocks, which I assume must not be very hard rocks. I found this image of a dinosaur in a narrow space between large boulders.

Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.

I captured images, testing compositions and to use as reminders, at locations that I thought might be good to return to with my DSLR at sunset.

Scrubby Vegetation and Red Hills, Palo Duro Canyon

Hilltop view near campsite, Palo Duro Canyon

I posted this panoramic image to Flickr, not because I thought it was a great image, but to share with others that may want to know what the area looks like and because I intended to use it in my blog and wanted to have a link to a larger image. Much to my surprise, this image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and is now my most viewed and faved image on Flickr. Maybe I’m just physically abusing myself carrying around that heavy DSLR camera and other gear, when a simple iPhone image garners this much attention.

Apparently, lots of people have scrambled up the steep slope to the top of this hill, since the boulders there all had some initials, names and dates carved into them.

Stay tuned for the sunset shoot here,

Ken

Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 14 – Sunset Clouds and Canyon

The light in the canyon was dim, but the clouds kept changing and I continued to snap photos, capturing the changing clouds and light.

As it got nearer sunset time, reflected light from the clouds, brightened the canyon and gave it a warm glow. The photo above has the best of the sunset light during this shoot.

The moon rose, while we were here, but it was completely obscured by the clouds, until it was high in the sky. It is barely visible in this image near the upper right of center. Click on the image to get a better view on Flickr (best viewed on a large screen).

While waiting and watching the sky, I walked around, capturing a few images with my iPhone.

This wraps up my July, 2021 visit to the Grand Canyon North Rim.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 4

After our first morning shoot at a North Rim overlook, we drove to other view points and hiked short trails to scout for other sunrise and/or sunset photo locations.

Remnants of a Native American granary is just a short distance from the trailhead for the Cliff Spring Trail.

Cliff Spring Trail Photo, GC North Rim, iPhone Photo

There were very healthy plants thriving on nutrients obtained from the rocks or minimal soil in crevices in a cliff face.

There is a short, easy trail to an overview at Roosevelt Point. The 4 photos above were taken from what may have been the end of the most commonly hiked and easiest portion of this trail. There is a steep step down at one point and a second less steep step down beyond that on the final portion of the trail. It is not actually clear whether the trail beyond the first big step down is part of the official trail or if hikers have extended the trail. I hesitated at the first step down, not sure whether it was wise or allowed to proceed.

After deciding I could make the step down and get back up safely my son and I proceeded along the path. In the photo just above, my son is seen pondering the next step down and trying to decide, if an official trail extends past this point. We noted trees that had been cut beyond this point, suggesting trail blazing, so we proceeded.

The end of the trail at Roosevelt point is in the photo above. There is a gap in the narrow rock ledge (the one with the rock perched near the end) that one has to carefully step over to get to the end of this ledge.

The photo above gives a better indication of the sharp drop off on either side of the narrow ledge at the end of the trail.

The photo above is made from as far along the narrow ledge as I dared go and it is probably not safe for anyone to go any further.

The last image in this post is made from an overlook at the highest view point on the North Rim.

The next post will be for our sunset photo shoot on our second day here.

Until then,

Ken

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Tag: iPhone Photography

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 15 – Hoosier National Forest

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Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

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Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 14 – Sunset Clouds and Canyon

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Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 4

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