Center Street, Wallingford, Connecticut

I went back to my hometown, Wallingford, Connecticut,  for the holidays this past year and decided to photograph downtown, curious to see how much had changed from what I remembered.  Strange to see so much had changed, and yet it was still the same….

Railroad Station - Built 1871

Police Department - Originally Connecticut State Armory, Built 1920

Main Street

This section of Main Street was where my favorite bar, aptly titled Main Street, used to be.  I never realized how historic my former watering hole was.  The Episcopal church at the far left was built in 1868.  The next building, where my favorite bar was housed on the first floor, known as the William Wallace Block, was built in 1857.  The building on the far right, which is now a restaurant, was the first First National Bank in Wallingford, built in 1921.

These Still Exist?

Original Bank of Wallingford - Now Bank of America

The Center Street Cemetery, which is located, surprise, in the center of town, on Center Street. (You can see the outside wall of the cemetery in the Center Street image, top of the page.)  The cemetery dates back to the late 1600′s. Some notables found here: Lyman Hall, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Mose Y Beach, founder of AP, and Thomas Yale, founder of Yale University.

Lyman Hall, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Gravesite

Tombstones from the Early 1800's

This is only a small sampling of the wonderful history & historical sites in this town.  Looking back on this trip, strange how much of this history I never even noticed growing up there.  I could probably spend days photographing everything, but that’s probably true of most small towns in New England.

Walking Up Center Street

Join Us….

This is the local yard waste landfill.   I never new this place existed until a friend brought me here after we did some landscaping.  It’s unbelievable how large this place is.  All the images were taken with my Droid phone.

Today’s Droid photo.

This is just too funny.  Thanks Brandon Bloch.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m teaching a Pinhole Camera Workshop for the Northwest Florida Arts Association on Saturday, February 26.  The class will build a pinhole camera, develop the black and white film, and participate in a “Retro Photo Show” in March at the Art Association’s gallery.  If you’re in the area and would like to register (space is limited) or for more info, check it out HERE.  It’s going to be a lot of fun.  Hope to see you there….

I’m in the midst of a series of portraits of local artists.  The first artist, Brandon Pence, is a good friend of mine and a very cool digital artist. Two things I found out about Brandon during this shoot, he likes fire and breaking things.

Check out Brandon’s work HERE.

Today’s Droid photo.

With the new year starting, in about half an hour, there will be some changes with this blog.  One thing I’ve realized, while putting my gallery together, is that I’m stuck in a rut, or maybe it’s boredom, photographically.  A friend of mine, in all his wisdom, told me last week that I’ve been riding the “the bird photography success” (I think laurels is the actual word he used) for a while. And honestly, I think he was and is right.  So, with the new year, I’m going to force myself to get out and shoot more and also to try new things artistically.  I’ll also be teaching some photography classes too.  My gallery will be up within the next couple of days and you’ll notice there aren’t many bird pictures.  I intentionally left them out.  It’s time to move on, at least for a little while.  Here’s some of what I photographed today.  If you totally hate it, please let me know with a comment.

Green Lynx Spider

It’s amazing what you can find in your own backyard.