Ball & Socket Manufacturing Co. | From Civil War Buttons to an Arts Complex

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This one stings a little. Not every location hands you a story worth telling and then slams the door before you can photograph it, but the Ball & Socket factory had other plans for J and me that day. The cold was the first thing I remember. A sharp Connecticut chill that had absolutely no interest in our ambitions. We worked our way into the inner courtyard, feeling reasonably optimistic, and then hit a wall literally. Locked doors on every side. No entry points that weren't either sealed or watched. The only building we managed to get inside looked less like a historic factory and more like a very long parking garage that had given up on itself. Even the boiler house was off the table. We circled, debated, and eventually made the call that every explorer has to make when a site is still secured and possibly still monitored: we walked. Some days you document. Some days the building wins. We never went back, and before we got a second crack at it, word came down that the complex...
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Archives #3: Manhattan Nights

A nocturnal cityscape of Manhattan viewed from an elevated position, with the bright streaks of traffic lights painting ribbons of color along the streets. The dense array of buildings is punctuated by patches of greenery and illuminated by the soft glow of city lights, with skyscrapers rising majestically in the background, draped in a misty haze.


I normally don't post night pictures. I have always been a day person. I never liked the edited night pictures I've taken in the past nor felt the need to publish them in general. I am hoping that the growing Lightroom experience I have been gaining over these past three years will change that.

Here are to more nighttime pictures.  🙈 💀 👶

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