Giant Alphabet Blocks

The photo below is my Flickr upload with the most views to date. At 756 at the time of this writing, it is almost 100 views ahead of the next runner-up. It is also one of my favorite photos ever, because it captures an image of my favorite graffiti art creations ever.

Giant Alphabet Blocks ~ Black & White with Color Splash

Though the photo is treated to get the black and white with a touch of color effect, the graffiti was really there and was not a photo shop trick. Loved the creative use of what was there and reinterpret into something else. Which I guess I also sort-of did when I decided to make the original below into what you see above.

Pillsbury Park Giant Alphabet Blocks

Similar to the Stone Arch Bridge study from earlier this week, this is a photo I have wanted to recreate. It is located near the bridge, so as soon as I finished taking that series of photos, I walked over to where I could find this scene. I was disappointed with what I found.

Covered Alphabet Blocks

Okay, so it was a different time of year (fall versus spring) and so of course it was overgrown compared to the last time I was there. But the art below the foliage has changed and I am less of a fan. It was bound to happen, of course, because the nature of a public canvas includes a susceptability to alteration (or even obliteration in the case of city graffiti cleanups). But it doesn't mean I have to like it!

Sara Duane-Gladden is a freelance writer and photographer in the Twin Cities area of the great state of Minnesota.  

Abandoned Horseshoe Saloon

Spotted this towards the end of summer, somewhere along Highway 25 between Becker and Brainerd in Minnesota. Yeah, that's a lot of mileage in between, but really all the small towns tend to look the same.

Old Rusted Sign

This sign is really what made me stop. If I wouldn't have seen this sign, I wouldn't have even noticed the abandoned building it was in front of.

Abandoned Roadside Bar

Must have been abandoned for a while, there are a bunch of trees growing right up next to the foundation.

Horseshoe Saloon

Isn't this a great sign? The other side was so faded, you couldn't read the name of the bar. Grain Belt, before it was hipster!

Food

Yup, love this sign. So simple, so sun faded. The other side wasn't as faded and had more red on it, but I liked this side better.

Fail ~ Time to Reboot

I sputtered out here at Sam Can Shoot a lot sooner than I expected. A month of posting, and then nothing. Fun new experiments with the new camera for a few weeks and then it just sits in my bag for just about as long. No photos, then no Flickr. No Flickr, then no Sam Can Shoot.

And I haven't been writing much at True to Words either.

Well that's enough procrastination! And to prove my renewed energy, I've just sorted through and uploaded 90 new photos to Flickr. I kind-of want to continue sifting, but I should really probably get to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day, with new photo opportunities and a more reasonable time to try and sort through 500 more photos. Wait, I think I took about 300 over the weekend. Hmmm... Well, better get to work!

In the meantime, here is one of the photos I uploaded today. It's an abandoned barn. But unlike my poor abandoned blog, no guilt-ridden soul is coming back to take care of it.

Inspirational Photographers - Ian Talty / Joy of the Mundane

A new installment I'd like to do monthly is aptly named Inspirational Photographers. I'd like to highlight the work of other people who inspire me to take more pictures, to experiment, and to look for the unique angle for that perfect shot. I can't imagine a person more suited for the first installment than the late Ian Talty, otherwise known as Joy of the Mundane.

Tunnel Of Light

Ian was a good friend of mine. If you read my True to Words blog, you've probably read the press release I wrote for his art show premier, which is Friday at SpotArt in Minneapolis. If you haven't, read it, it explains a lot.

Painted Bridge

Anyways, he inspired me to pick up the camera again about 2 years ago after 10 years of on and off dabbling. He is partly responsible for my current path down the digital photography trail, because I used to be hard-core about film as a medium. Used to be.

Graffiti Space

Ian was an urban explorer as well as a photographer, and as a result he brought his camera into a lot of places in the Twin Cities that not many others would be willing to go. Abandoned, out-of-the-way, dare I say rough places.

Above It All

What he brought back were beautiful pictures of urban spaces gone wild.

Field of Columns

Sometimes they literally grew wild with trees, moss, and leaves.

Forest Ruins

Other times, they were taken over by the native youth, in which case he would end up capturing images of creations made by some of society's most under-appreciated artists.

SOLO - AIP

The scourge of property owners and city officials, street art was one of his favorite topics. He paid homage to these street artists by taking pictures of their work, found deep in the tunnels and abandoned buildings of the metro, and posting it online, in the light, for the whole world to see.

EWOK

And his recognition of their work was reciprocated. Obviously he inspired more than just myself, who knows how many he lives he has touched, as his pictures have been viewed thousands of times online.

Joy of the Mundane

Even if you don't make it to the premier on Friday at SpotArt, you can view 10 of his works on display for the entire month of October. Additionally, there will be works exhibited by other local artists that you may like.