Downtown Houston in November 2022 (TX 08)

In November (2022), I wandered around downtown Houston. Everything is so modern, big, and overwhelming, it was hard to find the type of subject matter I like. Thanksgiving Day was gloomy but also uncrowded compared to normal. Here are a few scenes from the area near the Amtrak station and around Buffalo Bayou just north of downtown.

Amtrak

Bail bonds, a ubiquitous part of the American justice system, 1418 Washington Avenue

I found some 1981 negatives of Washington Avenue. Stand-by for a future post.

Houston's decidedly uninspiring Amtrak station (250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens)

Waiting for the train, Houston Amtrak station

Houston once had three passenger railroad stations. Only one remains, the magnificent 1911 Union Station. The main concourse of the former railroad station has been reused as a clubhouse, cafe, team store, office space, and lobby at Minute Maid Park (previously known as Enron Field until the financial scandal). They did a superb job of refurbishing the elegant entry hall. 

Today, Houston, once the railroad hub of the southern United States, has one uninspiring Amtrak station. The waiting room looks like a bus station. But, if you are energetic, you can take the sleeper all the way to Los Angeles. 

I arrived at the Amtrak station before the eastbound train was scheduled to arrive. When it rolled into the station, it was pulling two private rail cars at the end of the Amtrak cars. Then another locomotive pulled these two private cars away and shunted them to a siding, connecting them to a third private car. The elegant way to travel.

Downtown and Buffalo Bayou

Apartment blocks east of the Gulf Freeway (I-45) (250mm Sonnar lens)

Houston now has hundreds of residential units downtown. Compared to the 1980s, when I recall the downtown being mostly commercial, the city has become trendy.  

Buffalo Bayou and University of Houston Downtown (Panatomic-X film, 50mm Distagon lens, orange filter, 1/8 ƒ/11.5)

The University of Houston Downtown occupies the 1930 Merchants and Manufacturers Building. The building is over the site of Allen's Landing, where the Allen brothers landed and established the city of Houston in 1836. The bridge in the distance is the Main Street viaduct.

“Main Street viaduct, Houston, Texas, 1910,” Houston Waterways, accessed April 5, 2023, https://digitalprojects.rice.edu/wrc/waterways/items/show/1310.

Under the Main Street viaduct (80mm Planar-CB lens, 3-sec. ƒ/4.0½)

This 1910 concrete arch bridge carries the tram as well as cars over Buffalo Bayou. Despite the no camping signs, a group of homeless were camped there. They shared space with Muscovy ducks, who waddled around without concern. 

Waiting for the tram, view south towards downtown Houston (50mm Distagon lens)

Victorian House on Hamilton Street - being moved? (80mm Planar-CB lens, 1/15 ƒ/4.0½)

Third Ward

The MacGregor Tire Shop - but I'll pass (80mm, yellow filter, 1/30 ƒ/8)

Fourth Ward

No shopping today, 1122 West Grey (Fuji Acros film, Leica M2, 50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens, 1/250 ƒ/5.6)

There are still bits and pieces of an older Houston on West Grey, but most of it has been redeveloped with modern condominiums. I have negatives from this area from the early 1980s when it was more "earthy." Another project to scan....

Corrugated metal warehouse, 1515 Spring Street (Panatomic-X film, 80mm Planar-CB lens)

This interesting warehouse and the store above are remnants of older structures in the Fourth Ward. Not many are left. I will write more about the wards in a future article.

Texas Medical Center

Room with a view: Greenbriar Drive and the Houston METRORail (250mm Sonnar lens)

The area south of the Texas Medical Center is commercial and rather uninspiring. But hundreds of apartments and temporary residential units cater to medical patients. Huge parking lots serve thousands medical staff. But it is a food desert if you can't stomach fast food. Fortunately, Rice Village and its amazing restaurants are only two miles away. 

The METRORail tram can take you to the Medical Center, Hermann Park, the Museum District, with its 19 museums, or all the way downtown. METRORail is free if you are over 70.

Port of Houston

The Port of Houston is an immense economic engine for Texas and the USA. It is the second largest port in Dollar terms in the USA, after Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. Annually, some 22,000 deep-draft ships come in and use the 50-mile Houston Ship Canal and the Port's complex of wharfs, terminals, and refineries. The Houston Ship Canal needs regular (almost constant) dredging from its opening at the Gulf of Mexico mouth at Galveston, across Galveston Bay, and up the Buffalo Bayou. My 1981 car (still in use) came in through Houston. 

Take the free tour of the Port of Houston. Cruise right by these immense freighters. 

This ends out somewhat random wandering around Houston in November and early December. Thank you all for riding along! Click any photograph to see it enlarged. Most of these photographs are from my Hasselblad 501CM medium format camera.

Footloose around Vicksburg, Mississippi, with Kodak Ektar 25 Color Film

Dear readers, I had one last roll of the long-discontinued Kodak Ektar 25 color negative film in 120 size. I loaded it in the Hasselblad and wandered around Vicksburg. The Ektar is quite contrasty, so I prefer to use it when the light is overcast, or, best of all, foggy or rainy. Vicksburg offers plenty of topography and interesting architecture, so we will take a semi-random tour around town. (Click any photograph to enlarge it).

Clay Street, Vicksburg, view east, 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens.

Let us start this short tour with Clay Street, a major east-west thoroughfare. This is the first view of Vicksburg that many tourists see when they exit I-20. A friend called this the ugliest street in America. That is a bit harsh, but much of it certainly qualifies as the typical ghastly American commercial strip with crummy fast food joints, steel buildings, car parts stores, and Dollar stores.

My friends at Warfield's Servicenter kindly let me take pictures. They have kept the family cars running for many years. Highly recommended.

Jackson Street, Vicksburg, view east, 250mm Sonnar lens.

Three blocks to the north is Jackson Street, which still retains its brick paving blocks. Many of the houses are a century old. The photograph shows how the street follows the hills and valleys of the local terrain.

Walnut Street is also in the oldest part of town. This is a 1992 photograph I found in my archives.

Veto Street runs from Monroe Street (behind me) west towards Mulberry Street. It is an odd curved road. Did a streetcar once run on it? This 1992 photograph shows the Warren County library in the distance. I took it from the roof of the former Vicksburg Hospital. The hospital was demolished two decades ago and the Vicksburg police station in now on this footpad.

Former "Colored Motel," US 80, east of Mount Albans Road, 50mm Distagon lens.

Before the interstate was built in the early 1970s, Highway US 80 was the main road between Vicksburg and Jackson. Just east of the intersection with Mount Albans road, a pink motel is almost covered with kudzu. In the early 1980s, you could still see a big sign stating "Colored Motel." Somewhere in my negatives I may have a photograph, but that is a project for another day.

East of town on Culkin Road is the former Culkin Academy. It has been empty for at least two decades. A worm farmer rented the premises for a few years.

In downtown Vicksburg, the neighborhood near the junction of Marcus Street and Halls Ferry Road is known as Marcus Bottom. Many of the cottages here have been demolished over the years.  This photograph is from the Halls Ferry Road bridge where it crosses Stouts Bayou.

These shotgun houses are on East Avenue. The slope in the foreground drops down into Stouts Bayou.

Grammar Street once had 10 or 12 of these little shotgun houses. Only two remain now. Even a decade ago, they were pretty nasty.

Union Avenue descends from Sherman Avenue south towards the Vicksburg Military Park. This is not the Union Avenue within the park, but possibly it once connected in the era when there were multiple park entrances. And this outside Union Avenue is a bit odd. The west side is City of Vicksburg, while the east side is Warren County. Residents on the west get their water from the City, while residents on the east get it from Culkin Water District. The old Chevrolet and the house with blue tarp roof in the photographs above are in Warren County.

I found a 2010 photograph of this same Bellaire. Since then it moved across the street to the Warren County side.

Ford Road, Vicksburg, March 16, 2018

Near the flood crest, March 16, 2018.

Young Alley (off Ford Road), March 16, 2018.

Finally, here are some scenes from the spring flood, when high water forced some of the residents in the Ford subdivision to evacuate. The crest on the Vicksburg Gage was 49.90 ft on 03/16/2018 (from the National Weather Service). This area west of North Washington Street and just north of the Anderson Tully wood mill has always been vulnerable to flooding. Over the years, many houses have been bought via a FEMA program and demolished.

These photographs were taken on Kodak Ektar 25 film with a Hasselblad 501CM camera, with 50mm, 80mm, and 250mm Zeiss lenses. All pictures were tripod-mounted. The film was expired and the colors are off. My scanner software does not have a profile for Ektar 25, so I use the Ektar 100 one instead. Is it "accurate?" Who knows? Can you really remember how the scene looked weeks after you were on the site? If you want boring perfection and "accuracy," use digital.

This is no. 02d of my irregular series on Abandoned Films.

Vicksburg with a Hasselblad 100mm ƒ/3.5 CSi Lens and Fuji Pro 160 NS Film (Abandoned Films 10)

After successfully completing some medical treatments, I was overcome with a serious bout of GAS. That is Gear Acquisition Syndrome, although the other gas was also present. 

Hasselblad 501CM with 100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar CSi lens and correct hood

For over five years, I used an 80mm Planar lens on my Hasselblad. But sometimes, I wanted just a bit more reach. With 35mm cameras, I liked the 55mm ƒ/1.8 Super-Takumar lens on the Pentax Spotmatic. This was just marginally longer than the more common 50mm. Hasselblad's 100mm Planar lens would provide a diagonal coverage on 6×6 approximately equal to 55mm on 35mm, so I started looking at online vendors in USA. Soon, this gorgeous 100mm ƒ/3.5 Planar CSi lens came in a big padded box from Camera West. This is a 6-element Planar design and is reputed to be the highest resolution Hasselblad lens for distant subjects.

On a foggy and drizzly January day (my favorite light), I loaded a roll of Fuji Pro 160 NS film in the holder and headed out. This is a neutral color balanced film designed for wedding, fashion, and commercial product photography. Fuji did not distribute 160NS in the USA and discontinued it in the Japan market in October 2021.  

I posted these frames at 2400 pixels wide, so click any picture to see the details. Most were tripod-mounted.

Polk Street view east, January 7, 2023, 1/15 ƒ/11

Monroe Street looking south from China Street. The former Junius Ward YMCA is to the right.

Pearl Street near Fairground Street, 1/15 ƒ/16

2521 Pearl Street, still occupied (taken from railroad tracks)

501-509 Fairground Street (taken from railroad bridge), 1/15 ƒ/16

Floodwall and Bunge Corporation, Levee Street, view south (hand-held)

1109 Mulberry Street, view east, 1/30 ƒ/11

LD's Restaurant is in a building that formerly housed a club/bar (closed several times because of shootings) and a liquor store.

Railroad yard from Levee Street - 250mm ƒ/5.6 Sonnar lens, 1/4 ƒ/22

2427 Washington Street - 80mm ƒ/2.8 Planar-CB lens

I added two frames that I took with my 80mm and 250mm lenses. Hasselblad's 100mm lens is considered to be their "sharpest" (whatever that means in internet fantasy-land), but all the Zeiss lenses are superb performers. My Planar-CB is a 6-element design, in contrast to the more common 7-element models. My 250mm Sonnar is a 1960s silver barrel model with single coating, but it is just fine.

I found a very handy padded bag to hold my camera on the car seat next to me or on the floor. The rest of the kit stays in a larger camera bag. This is a Ruggard Onyx 35, only $17.95 from B&H. $17.95? That is the cost of a roll of film now. The original idea came from a WalMart lunch box that my wife suggested, but this Onyx is well-sewn and protective. Highly recommended.

Thank you all for joining me on this semi-random tour of Vicksburg.

Footloose in Houston in the early-1980s (TX 01)

Blog note

Dear Readers, this will be the start of a series on Houston and south Texas. I have hundreds of negatives from my previous life when I lived in Houston but will never have time to scan them all. Two months in Houston in late 2022 gave me a chance to explore the city again. There is so much to see!

I photographed in the Texas Panhandle in the past as part of my Route 66 project, at the Rio Grande border and Big Bend, and in Galveston. If interested, please type "Texas" in the search box. I will start numbering this new series to keep track of these SE Texas posts. Texas is endlessly fascinating. Enjoy the ride! 

Introduction

In the early-1980s, I worked in the oil industry and lived in West University Place, a quiet enclave within Houston, Texas. Having moved from the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, Houston was a culture shock for us (more so than Athens, Seattle, Providence, and any number of other cities). Houston was a new, noisy, vibrant, flashy, and disorganized city, so different from staid and traditional 350-year-old Boston or 3000-year-old Athens. West University Place was perfect, an established neighborhood with mature trees and handsome mid-century cottages within walking distance to restaurants, stores, and Rice University.

Our comfortable little home in West University Place, still extant but different paint. It had genuine wood floors and plaster walls. (Kodachrome 25 slide)

Downtown Houston

When I was in town (meaning not offshore), I explored and took pictures. Having a "real" job, I bought a Rolleiflex 3.5E camera at Southside Camera Center (long gone) and updated my 35mm equipment. I also took two full-semester photography classes at University of Houston from Dr. Suzanne Bloom. Here are a few examples from my early explorations.

The Houston skyline in 1980 from Glenwood Cemetery (Nikon 105mm ƒ/2.5 lens, Panatomic-X film)

Glenwood Cemetery is still a peaceful green relief from the highways and noise of the city. Today, many more skyscrapers fill the sky. I will show a recent picture from the same location later. 

In 1982, downtown Houston still had the look of "old American city" with grungy discount shops, loan stores, old-line clothing shops, and mature companies dating back before WWII.

Main Street view north

Elegant professional ladies with Samsonite briefcases. Wearing stockings? 

Cheerful gents

Main Street was boisterous and busy during the day. But after about 6 pm, Houston rolled down the shutters and the inner city became quiet. Few people lived downtown then, and office workers drove off to the suburbs. Today (2022), the downtown has apartments and restaurants, and the warehouse district just east of downtown is being redeveloped with very nice townhouses.

Abruptly, in typical Houston style, a furious rain storm engulfed us. What fun.

I took these 1982 photographs on Kodak Panatomic-X film with my Rollei 35S compact camera. I bought it in September of 1981 for $141 at Southwestern Camera, possibly at 1416 Main Street (now a parking lot). Rollei had just gone through bankruptcy and reorganization, and Southwestern was selling off their stock of Rollei products. This little camera, with its excellent 40mm ƒ/2.8 Sonnar lens, served me well for many years, especially when I was traveling. I convinced two coworkers to also buy Rolleis. 

In 1982, you could still buy a brand new twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex 2.8F or 3.5F from the New York vendors. Why didn't I jump on the opportunity?

You will see more Houston photographs in the future. 

Rollei 35S with 40mm ƒ/2.8 Sonnar lens, body made in Singapore (from Wikipedia). It used 30mm filters, which were hard to find.