1st Showing of My Route 66 Photography

Bill Shea's Route 66

Bill Shea is the owner of a Route 66 Gas station museum and a veteran of Utah Beach, WWII . What makes his place so great is that he is the original owner of this former Marathon Station, he's a real treat to talk with. Bill started his business in 1946 as a Texaco dealer, just down the road from where he presently is located. He showed me all around his collection which includes things like, his Texaco uniform from the way back, much gasoline paraphernalia, a fantastic collection of images of his family and Springfield happenings over the years, set up for easy viewing in an old parts catalog rack. The list goes on, many gas pumps from gravity fed to a rare double headed analog pump. Vintage cash registers, old phone booths, a classic, perfectly working water fountain, antique vending machines... interesting items everywhere you look! Bill even has a second gas station. It was the first style to be constructed of metal. Bill and his family saved it from destruction by moving it down 66 a bit. Make sure that you have plenty of time for your visit, the collection is vast and Bill is willing to tell you all about it! You can find Bill at 2075 Peoria Rd, Springfield, IL 62702. He's closed on Sunday and Monday and when the State Fair is on.

Illinois Route 66

Last week after finishing a commercial photo job in Indianpolis that I P.A.'ed on, I had the opportunity to head on over to ole' Route 66 to make some more images for my route 66 website and up coming photo exhibit. I arrived in Springfield, Il. just a bit too late to hit up the Cozy Dog Drive In, which is a great little 66 restaurant on it's second generation of the Waldmire Family. They serve up hot dogs on a stick, all bundled up and fried in their special batter. Now I'm not much of a hot dog eater, but these things are down right delicious. Besides, it's Route 66 you gotta stay true to the eats! Well, maybe I'll see them nextime!

Picked up some Mothership Witt, since they have it in Illinois and headed back to the Route 66 Hotel and Conference Center for the night. BTW, the're the best lodging I've been able to find on 66 in Springfield, let me know if you've found better. It's an old school Holiday Inn, too bad they don't still have the grand marquis. Drank down a few wits and off to sleep to hurry the morning adventure.

Up at 5 am, it was easy, it was 6 at home! Out the door for the last bit of civil twilight. Headed south on I55, off at Chatham Rd. and came into Springfield from the original path of 66. The first shot that revealed it's self to me was at the corner of 2nd and Capitol. The Capitol Building all warmed up by the breaking sun. So I grabbed a few shots before heading off to meet Bill Shea.

Images from Cabin Fever 2008

One Under kicked off the festival season at Legend Valley Friday night, May 2nd. They set the bar up another notch for the up coming summer touring. Check out these to fantastic sets at http://www.archive.org/details/OU2008-05-02

Here are the images I shot that night.
I hope you enjoy!

2008 Cleveland Auto Show

I went to check out the auto show at the IX Center here in Cleveland yesterday. There are some pretty cool designs for prototypes and new sports cars/ muscle cars for 2008. I love to look at these cars and dream of cruising on Route 66 in one, but when it comes down to it there is not much practicality in a car with a huge gas guzzling engine and almost no back seat. You can check out some of the photos I took here http://www.davidschwartzphoto.com/blog/car_show/index.html

The biggest let down is that none of the auto makers seem to be making any strides to get America off of the gasoline. If fact I saw less ideas there than I have in previous years. What happened to the hydrogen car that GM used to show off? Now they have a prototype crossover that charges over night and will give you only 40 miles of full electric run till you have to charge it again. Doesn't seem to viable to me. I thought there might be some expansion of hybrids in some of the lines. Toyota redesigned the Matrix, they should have made a hybrid version. So, I see that purchasing a new car this year is not going to be an easy thing. With my restrictions of needing a vehicle that I can haul my photo equipment and wanting something that is kinder to the environment. My only hybrid options are the Ford Escape or it's sister the Mercury Mairiner. I'm not a Ford fan. Out of the 5 cars I've owned in my life 2 were Fix Or Repair Daily (FORD). It's looking like I should keep my Matrix and start praying for more options next year. Thanks for reading my rant.

Cover Art for Itunes

I've become so tired of looking at all those empty cover art squares in itunes. So I sat down today and figured out how to add my own art work. The steps are as follows:

1. Open itunes
2. Open the new cover image in Preview (Mac) or windows picture program (I need someone to verify this works for windows)
   
3. In top menu bar Edit>Copy
4. Activate the itunes window
5. Select the songs you want to add the art to
6. In the top menu bar File>Get Info
   
7. It will ask if you want to edit multiple songs say yes
8. Check the artwork radio button so it's checked
   
9. Click on the art work box so it's highlighted
10. Paste the image in the box
11. Enjoy!
    

This the first cover I created check back here often for new ones.
To download just right click on the image as save as...

You can download the One Under show associated with this cover at:
http://www.archive.org/details/ou2008-02-02.flac