The Arcade - Dayton

The Arcade, originally uploaded by BillyCrafton.

On Monday, 11/17/2008, I got to go shoot with Vincent Laforte at an abandoned building in downtown Dayton, The Arcade. This is an amazing building that used to have stores, restaurants, office space and apartments. There is an effort to restore the building and re-open it.

Thanks to John P. Murphy, we were able to get access to the arcade and shoot with Vincent, a Canon Explorer of Light, as he was in town to do a presentation for the Focus Photo Club.

Vincent had a pre-release of the Canon 5DmkII DSLR. If you haven't been to his website and seen his movie, Reverie, created with a pre-release version of the 5DmkII, go there now and check it out!

While Vincent shot video, I looked for areas to shoot High Dynamic Range photos, HDR. Vincent loved the peeling paint and general decay of the building as we got to work with the 5D and video. The building was very dark and we only had flashlights, so it was a challenge in some of the areas. We only made it to 5 areas as we would stop and shoot for 30 min to an hour in each spot.

I found a door out to the fire escape and could have spent an hour out there alone. The shot here is one of my favorites. It is an HDR made up of 3 shots taken 2 stops apart. I processed them through Dynamic Photo HDR, a windows only program. I'm planning to switch to a new Macbook Pro in the near future and when that happens, I plan to switch to Photomatix as well.

When I shoot landscape HDRs, I go for a natural look to try and capture what I saw with my eyes but I've gotten to do a few shoots in decaying buildings and I like going a little to the extreme to create something different.

We also learned that the Arcade has a ghost! I look forward to going back and documenting more of the building.

CD Review - The Kreellers - "Sixth and Porter"

The Kreellers are a trio out of Detroit that consist of Derek Wade on Lead Vocals and harmonica, Paul Bruno on guitar and bodhran, and TK on percussion. "Sixth and Porter" is a combination of original and traditional Celtic music with great harmony, acoustic guitar, a bit of the harp and strong percussion.

The title track "Sixth and Porter" is about the Irish immigration to Detroit "...working drinking drinking working till I die". Derek's vocals and Paul's guitar drive this song with TK's drum keeping the beat. "Just A Hero" is a song dedicated to Derek and Paul's father. Traditional songs such as "Boys of the Old Brigade" and "Tell Me Ma" are powered by Derek's harmonica playing and an infectious drum beat. "Excursion around the Bay" has Paul on Bodhran, TK on drums and a 3-part harmony that makes their version one of my favorites and caused River Barge captains to complain in Cincinnati!

Where's the bag pipes, Irish whistle or fiddle you say? You won't miss them for a second! The percussion will get your head moving and your foot tapping while Paul's folk guitar playing and Derek's great vocals get you coming back for more. You see these guys at the bar in a Pub and you think, "Yeah, they're from Detroit" but you hear these guys on stage and you say "Wait, these guys are from Detroit???" I had no idea what to expect when I first saw them in Dayton but it re-ignited my passion for Celtic music. I love the album and give it Two Thumbs Up! They put on a great show and constantly interact with the crowd. If you catch them in a pub, go have a pint and enjoy the music!

You can check out the album on their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/thekreellers