Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: grain elevator

Sunfield's about four miles down the way from Mulliken (Michigan, in both cases). The two towns are about the same size, and both live mostly between the tracks (CSX, these days) and highway M-43. Historically both are grain elevator towns and provided services to local farmers. The biggest physical difference between the villages is that our town spills over to the north of the railroad, while in Sunfield the rails define the town's northern boundry. As this photo shows.

The tracks are still here, but the trains no longer stop, and much of the elevator complex has been demolished. Mulliken was a farm town for about a century. There was a grocery store, a lumberyard, a hardware store. A church, a school, a barber, a library, a beauty shop, a couple bars, a restaurant that served breakfast. A gas station. A post office. And this grain elevator. The lumberyard was already gone when I moved here in 1991. This feed, grain, & seed operation closed two or three years after I took these photos. The hardware failed around 2000. The school's been gone for years, as have the hair cutters. Boyer's no longer serves gasoline, though John can still fix your pickup. The grocery's evolved into a party store, and Farmers Tavern's been a full-service restaurant since the 80s. In many ways, now, we've become a rather distant Lansing suburb. We aren't entirely commuters--a surprising number of my neighbors work as plumbers, and these days our biggest local business is a general contractor. But the farmers ship grain, and buy seed, at Sunfield , or Grand Ledge, or Woodbury. I miss 'em.

Another photo from my 1995 exploration of the local grain elevator.

Downtown Mulliken on a summer day in 1997. My notes for this photo believe it was taken Saturday evening during the town's annual block party, called Homecoming, though things really don't look busy enough to support that notion. Regardless, this is a fair image of Main Street for most of the last decade. A few notes follow, in case someone is trying to sort these things out. All the buildings on the left (north) side of Main Street back up to the CSX (originally Pere Marquette Railroad) main line across southern Michigan. On the left: * You can't see Mulliken/Merrified Hardware (now CCD Engineering) or the old barber shop, which are to my immediate left. * The small brick building's the post office. * The white building's the new library. * The next building's Creative Taxidermy. * The large brick building is the clubhouse for Brothers of the Ring. o The old Village Hall, which is tucked in beside BOTR, is difficult to see. o The house beyond that is completely hidden in this view. * The next brick structure is the end of the town's recycling center--before my time this seems to have been a lumber yard. * Not there yet in '97, but the new Village Hall is between the recycling center and the elevator. * The (then) still intact and functioning Mulliken Elevator dominates the view at the far end of Main. As I've noted in the past, this set of structures is now being dismantled. On the right: * The yard in the foreground is part of a rental property. * The two storefronts beyond the yard housed a beauty parlor and a veterinarian's office at the time. Both businesses are now gone, though the building is still occupied. * The next two storefronts, and the courtyard between them, house Farmer's Steakhouse (and the Sain antique business). * Beyond Farmer's is the (new) fire station/township hall, but it's not visible from here. * The white frame building is the Masonic Temple. * Beyond that is Mulliken's downtown park.... Camera: Chinon Genesis III

For over a century, this grain elevator was the main reason for Mulliken. This railside complex was the farming community's touchpoint with the larger world. They'd come to buy seed before planting, then return to sell the grain they'd grown from the seed. This routine made for an interesting, seasonal parade of vehicles on Potter Street. July's winter wheat harvest was a particularly busy time; trucks, tractors, and trailors would line Main Street day and night as the farmers and staff would struggle to get the grain from truck to hopper. That's gone. A few years back, a fire gutted the office. The owners rebuilt. Then the contents of one of the silos got wet, rotted, and stank up the town. They cleaned it up, but that crop was a total loss. The business limped on for a few months after these disasters, then failed. The place was vacant, except a few stray cats, for a couple years; a family converted the office into a home and has now lived there for some time. They're now removing the ancient buildings, and the silos. (Slightly) Photoshopped & reposted 3/4/06

Still playing catch-up. Or ketchup, if you've been a Time Waiter . This is the grain elevator at the end of my street. It's been out of business for a long time, now, and from time to time the current owners see fit to remove things. To be fair, they've also made some significant repairs, and they've preserved the general "look and feel" of the place. Several large structures have gone, as has the superstructure. ( This photo, from roughly the opposite angle, gives some hints .) ========== All the December 23 pix for 366 Snaps were taken close to home, since Joan and I were busy getting ready for Christmas. The photo I posted to the photo-a-day project was of our table cloth, which looks like Christmas wrapping paper. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 26 Title of " roll :" Around Mulliken Other photos taken on 12/23/2012: none.

Many of the local grain elevators have closed down in the past few years . To all appearances my neighbor farmers have moved their business to this operation, or to ADM's north of Grand Ledge. By prairie standards the Woodbury elevator's not a large operation. Around here it's pretty impressive. ========== Had a couple specific photographs in mind for last Halloween's 366 Snaps pic, one of which was this one. But there was a larger purpose, too. This was a scouting trip, looking for photographs "beyond Sebewa." I took lots of photographs on this drive, of buildings and farmland and details and landscapes. Many are oddly composed, but most are interesting regardless. In the end, I posted a Halloween pic to 366 Snaps. It was taken very near where I took this photo. A fun photo excursion, all in all. ========== Obviously I'm discussing personal preferences in this section. Reasonable people certainly disagree with me about this. So be it. More tomorrow , I expect. When I bought the Sigma lens I had a notion that I'd convert to the "ideal" of carrying a collection of fixed-focus lenses with my D70. When I bought the D300 I gave away the D70 and my only remaining zoom, which left me with this lens and the 300 mm. That's not a good set. But I figured I'd fix it eventually. As things worked out my next purchase was the 80-200, then about a year later I added the 16-85. Those two convinced me not to pursue the set-of-primes solution; they meet most of my needs. But gosh these pix show why you'd want to shoot exclusively with prime lenses. This is a terrific piece of glass. As I've noted, on November 1 of last year I listed the Sigma 50 mm for sale on Amazon. It sold almost immediately, and I recovered most of the purchase price. Mostly I don't miss it. ========== This photograph is an outtake--well, an alternate crop--from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 65 Title of " roll :" Sebewa Loop Other photos taken on 10/31/2012: none.

Sunfield's the next town over, four miles down the tracks (and M-43, which is perhaps more relevant) from Mulliken. Since a year ago was a Sunday, I headed to Marco's, in Sunfield, for my daily RC cola hit. ( I've explained this before .) The morning light was terrific. I took my camera and found my 366 Snaps photo. ========== I've shown you that spreader before . The above photo puts it in context. Sunfield's grain elevator was always bigger than Mulliken's, but it's grown some since my town's seed company folded. I'm told, but haven't verified, that this elevator is now closed down, too. If so, it's still in the ag business in some form. ========== The 366 Snaps photo captures Sunfield's Main Street pretty much in its entirety. I've been showing you bits and pieces. Really like the way my processing turned out on this pic. Shooting into the morning sun can be, well, interesting. ========== This photograph is a non-outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 16 Title of " roll :" Sunfield Other photos taken on 10/21/2012: I shot about a hundred pix at a birthday party.

I only shot eight photographs a year ago today. After picking up my mail, I walked around the post office and wandered along the tracks behind the downtown buildings. To the right in this photo is the somewhat-reduced collection of buildings which once was the Mulliken grain elevator. The distant light on the tracks is likely not a train, since it has vanished in a similarly-framed shot I took a few minutes later. I've mentioned Bibble Pro's Andrea plugin before, which has ability to mimic films and papers. In this case it's Ilford's FP4 Plus 125 film printed on their Multigrade IV FB paper. I picked up my affection for this look half my life ago, from my brother. ========== In this 1909 photograph of Mulliken's Main Street , on the left toward the far end of the street, is a boxy building that appears to be just beyond the last telephone pole. I believe that edifice to be the same building as the old wreck of a structure I photographed for 366 Snaps , though the building's front has significantly changed. I've no idea what other functions the place has served over the years, but for a time the village stored its truck in there. Nowadays it seems to be serving as a salt shed. That corrosive fill can't be doing the ancient brickwork any favors. This one's not an Ilford look. It mimics Fomapan 100 on Kentmore Art De Luxe (so Andrea claims; I don't actually know either), a combination I'd use again to bring out the details, and generally sharpen things up. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 8 Title of " roll :" Along the Tracks Other photos taken on 4/28/2012: none.

A Willmar Eagle 8500 Sprayer at the Sunfield grain elevator--presumably available for the rental use of the elevator's customers. As I mentioned a couple days back , I love the exotic gear the local farmers use. It runs in the family. When Debbie was living in southern Minnesota, one of her pasttimes was watching the passing farm equipment. Only those were huge factory farms, and that equipment dwarfed the stuff I see. We'll return to this scene in the fall. ========== Sunfield's four miles down the tracks and M-43 from Mulliken. It's about the size and shape as my town, and has a similar population. But it's a half-century older town. Also unlike Mulliken, Sunfield's elevator's still in operation, and the Main Street central business district's still largely intact. As I've mentioned before , Mulliken's become a bit of a Lansing suburb. Sunfield remains primarily a farming community. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 9 Title of " roll :" Sunfield Other photos taken on 3/25/2012: Once again I was outdoors shooting pix of flowers--40 pix in two sessions, all with the V1.

Sunfield's Main Street's anchored at one end by a factory and by a hardwood operation at the other. The still-thriving grain elevator dominates the railroad side of the street, and Mapes Furniture-- I mentioned them in a completely different context a week ago --occupies a block on the opposite side. There's also a museum, a (tiny) post office, and a G.A.R. Hall. Pretty impressive for a town of 600 or so souls. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . 366 Snaps project discussion for March 25 .