Devil Ball's Journal

Thanks for the nudges. In case you are wondering what happened to me. This is what I have been doing.

Hey folks. I've been getting lots of nudges over the past month. Well it worked. Here I am.

Promise to fix the busted links on this journal. Trimming my budget resulted in my canceling my web host. So all my pics were removed. I'll get it fixed up as soon as I can.

Other than that I hope everyone is doing well.

Urbex Print Sale

You demanded them. I prepped them. Here they are.

9 new Urbex prints. Get Them While You Can!

Click Here: To Shop For New Prints

Photography During Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon is the full moon that appears nearest to the autumnal equinox. The appearance of the Harvest Moon begins the first of the harvesting months in the Northern Hemisphere. Many cultures celebrate the harvests with gatherings, festivals, and rituals that are intricately attuned to the Harvest Moon.

The harvest moon gets its name from the fact that farmers harvesting crops at this time of year were able to use the light of the harvest moon to continue the work in the fields.

I decided to use it for some night photography.

Shadows creep across the landscape as the sun behind me sinks toward the horizon.

( Click Here: To See My First Night Shoot )

Gallery Show Title
Thank you to everyone who contributed to our gallery show title brain storming session. Your suggestions gave me a lot to think about and helped me arrive at my current choice.

The Devouring of All Creations:
Natures patient deconstruction of our buildings and their histories

Comments please.

BTW: Gallery Show contract signed. It's going to happen.

Texas Day 2: Climbing the Brew Tower

Part 2 of the Forbidden Bewery:
Climbing of the Brew Tower

The brewing process begins at the top with grain and ends at the loading dock with kegs and bottles of beer.

"The stock-man rides up
with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar,
pulls a wat from his coat,
But the smile on his face
quickly turns to a sneer,
When the bar man said sadly
the pub's got no beer."

Hops Storage Room

( Click Here: To Climb the Brew Tower )

Texas Day 2: The Forbidden Brewery

Irish Drinking Song:
A long time ago, way back in history,
When all they had to drink was nothing but cups of tea,
Along came a bloke by the name of Charlie Mopps,
And he invented a wonderful drink and he made it out of hops

Chorus:
He ought to have been an Admiral, a Sultan or a King
And to his praises we shall always sing.
Look what he has done for us: he's filled us up with cheer.
God bless Charlie Mopps, the man who invented beer.

Originally the Galveston Brewing Company: Open 1895 -1981

( Click Here: To Find Out If I Got Inside )

Texas Day 2: Dilemma

So I travel 1500 miles and arrive at the big score.

To my dismay, diagonally across the street is the Police Station and the police motor pool.

There were cops cruising through this hood constantly. As I approach the building a police pickup drove along my side at about two miles per hour.
Curse me for carrying my respirator and tripod out in the open. I thought this place was going to be easy.

The cop parked down the street to observe from a distance.
He though he was being sneaky, but I could see him plain enough.

Buying time to think, I set up my tripod for an innocent exterior shot. A guy in a Gas Company truck pulls up and tells me that Homeland Security
is going to arrest me for taking photos in this neighborhood.

He motions the Gas Company building, right next door. And then to the shipping port in sight about half a mile away with a navy vessel docked.

Oh yeah! And this was the entrance.

What do you think I did??

She Insists on Urbexing in Flip Flops!

FlipFlopChick is really trying. At the military supply she shopped for a flak jacket so she wouldn't get bullet holes in her camisol.
TX residents have a reputation for shooting trespassers first and asking questions later.

In case you don't recognize her this is FlipFlopChick, rejected from Mad Dog Crew for unacceptable flip flop use.

So what does she do? Keeps wearing flip flops to abandonments out of spite.
This is at an abandoned gas station/diner off Route 10W, about 40 minutes east of Houston.

FlipFlop is telling me a tale about a struggle she had with feral dogs at an abandoned water park.

Texas, Day 1: Katy Rice Dryers

This building is a rice dryer facility. It was used to fast dry vast amounts of rice by heating an aeration.

So hot that the sun hums.

After I finished this shoot I met a guy in the neighborhood nearby.
He told me that a friend of his died in this rice dryer. A flood of rice buried and suffocated him.

( Click Here: To Check It Out! )

Texas Adventures In Ubex

The heat in Texas wraps around you like a blanket. That's why I explore there half naked.

Mission Photos Coming Soon!

What Draws Us?

Amusement park fairway.

What draws us to abandoned places?

( Click Here: For Amusement Park Urbex )

Homeland Security, Texas Cops, Typhoon Rains
In case anyone is wondering where I've been. I'm Houston as I write this.

Highlights so far. I've been warned by a guy in a gas company uniform that the Department of Homeland Security was gong to arrest me. The cops have shadowed me but I managed to shake them. My equipment nearly got destroyed in typhoon rains.

You'll hear all about it when I get back.

Chernobyl Urbex
I'm making a list of Urbex places I need to visit before I retire. Chernobyl may have made the list.

Check out this site about:

A Girl
A Geiger Counter
A Motorcycle
A Camera

She makes a photo documentary of her motorcycle tour of Chernobyl and the surrounding areas.
http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/

For those of you who do not know:
Chernobyl is a Russian city that is now a ghost town.
The city was abandoned in 1986 after the Chernobyl Power Plant disaster. The worst nuclear disaster in history.

This place should go on the list. Don't you agree?

Historic Drive In: Focks Busts His UE Cherry

This historic drive in opened in 1947 and closed in 1996.

The business was doing well but the town put pressure this business to close due to increased traffic on the roadway.

Focks, elite designer/photographer, makes his first Urbex trip at this drive in. See is work at http://rennartist.deviantart.com/.

( Click Here: To See Focks Busting His UE Cherry )

Meet Big Richard Flapjacks
I received this anonymous post today and habitually deleted because I thought it was some run of the mill wise ass.

This was the post.
"...I'm getting really sick of this "Urbex" nonsense. Let's go look for some wiggly's to stick in our pillow cases!"

About two hours after I deleted it, I realized that it was really a message from my good pal Big Richard Flapjacks.

Meet Big Richard Flapjacks. He's a cross between MacGyver and an Ichtehologist.
If it swims slithers, hops or crawls, he will find it, catch it, show it some love and then send it back on its merry way.
Notice the pillow case.. as in his comment. "Let's look for some wigglys to put in our pillow cases."

Big Richard Flapjacks is very disappointed that I'm going to Texas next week and I'm not bringing my snake hooks

( Click Here: To Meet Big Richard Flapjacks )

Beware of Tweezle Jacks!

If you’ve ever felt like hikin’ down a track in Doozledorf
The train ain’t going nowhere cuz it crashed a screejing Gorf.

So you look to see a shiny kind of train that you might like
But the garbage in its cleaning barge has twice the kind of lice.

( Click Here: To Meet the Doozles )

A Call For Texan Urbexers

I'm flying to Houston in a few weeks and I need some Texas hospitality, urbex style.
If you're an explorer from the Houston area, please email or AIM me.

I have already made several contacts, but I still won't be satisfied until I have concrete plans with dates and times.

( Click Here: For Info on the Upcoming Missions )

Urbex Mission Fund Lobbying

I repeatedly risk my ass, and now all I'm asking from you is for a little support.

Texas urbex mission scheduled several weeks from now. All proceeds from these prints will go directly to support more top notch urbex documentary.

When shopping, pay attention to the difference between the cropped and the bordered versions.

You requested them, and here they are.
Now you can enjoy the beauty of urbex without the risk of injury or arrest.

Click Here: http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/WMello/FriendsGallery/MoreRequests

MOVE IT TEAM!

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