Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: needmore

For some reason our eyes/brains accept the distortions introduced by telephoto lenses more readily than we accept extreme wide angles. The farthest trees in this photo are about three miles off; the nearest less than a mile. Roxand Township, Michigan, from Needmore Road--more or less at a place some maps show as Kelly.

I was looking for a lone tree to set against this morning's dramatic sky, but came upon this barn while I was wandering around the local backroads. I've photographed the barn before, and have told what I know of its story once or twice. But you haven't all been reading my commentaries for years, so today I'll tell another version. John McCargar was an early Eaton County resident, and Roxand Township's first white settler, arriving from New York in 1837. A few years later he married Lucy Maxson, who lived a farm or two over from his. (Daniel Strange's 1923 pioneer history makes a joke of this, as by somebody's "county history" rules a man wasn't "officially settled" without a helpmate. This definition is nonsense, of course, and Dan Strange knew that.) Anyway, the farm stayed in the McCargar family's hands for several decades, and somewhere along the way they built this barn next to the now gone family home, which was beyond the shed on the edge this photo. When I first discovered the barn, probably 37 years ago, it was evident that the foundation wasn't holding and that the barn would collapse when that stone wall fell. The then-current owners fixed that with the buttresses shown here. But the barn's old, and seems to be in danger of a more general failure these days.

Andrew Nickle, a native of Ireland, made the first government land purchase here in 1837, but while he went to get his family, Orrin Rowland and Henry Clark became the first actual settlers; William Crother lived here with Roxana, believed to be his wife; her son-in-law had Crother sued for bigamy and won; while her lawyer, Edward Bradley, was a state senator, the townspeople had him petition that the town be named Roxana; the enrolling clerk made the final "a" look more like a "d" and the name became Roxand; but its post office, opened on Dec. 31, 1849, with John Ewing as its first postmaster, was spelled Roxana; the office operated until March 31, 1903; the village was also called Needmore and is on some maps as such. That run-on sentence from Michigan Place Names by Walter Romig. Who says history can't be fun? ---------- The photograph shows what used to be Larry's Body Shop at the corner of Wheaton and Needmore, which is to say in Needmore . As the quotation indicates, Needmore's been settled since the 1830s.

Needmore Road, south of Mulliken, Michigan.

Some of the first Eaton County settlers clustered near the corner of Needmore Highway and Wheaton Road, though neither road was named yet. Nowadays we locals call the place "Needmore," but old maps show it variously as "Maxson's Corners," "Roxana," and "Roxand." Quite honestly, Needmore's the hardest name to explain--or at least I've never seen an explanation. I found this barn by driving to Needmore and heading north. My first, poor, view was of an obviously-collapsing roof, gone fluid from age and gravity. I got closer, shot a few pix, and published one of those to 366 Snaps . ========== A bored photographer needs new subjects. Thus my Nashville photographs last October 3, my beyond Sebewa excursion on October 31, and my Webber Dam trip on November 8. This day's object was similar--this time a short trip, but I did want to travel local roads I'd been ignoring. Thus this absolutely unexpected discovery. I returned in mid-December, intending to capture my original view, only to discover that the barn had been removed. Found it just in time. There's a lesson. ========== This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 10 Title of " roll :" Strange Highway, Wheaton Road Other photos taken on 11/10/2012: none.

I used to pass this place going to and from work. The pic's been pretty heavily photoshopped (using PSE, not that it matters), but at this point I don't recall the reason. Perhaps I was just playin'. Last March 5 I was definitely in a mood to photograph barns. This photo was an insurance shot taken on my return trip, after photographing my day's quarry. ========== My photographic "target" that day was a collapsing farmyard complex on the edge of Grand Ledge. I called the resulting photograph "The End is Near"--which proved true, as those ruins would be demolished early in May . I'd post a photo of the post-demolition remains to 366 Snaps on July 30. The Grand Ledge farmyard consisted of a medium-sized barn and three sheds, all of which seemed to deteriorate simultaneously (I was minded of OWH's " Wonderful One-Hoss Shay "). The farm's still-surviving house was across the street. Despite a number of attempts I never managed a satisfactory photo of the farmyard's barn. There was a spectacular morning-sunshine shot just begging to be captured, but I never managed it. I'll be forever disappointed. ========== For some reason neither of these photos got my usual thin-line frame. This photograph is an outtake from my 2012 photo-a-day project, 366 Snaps . Number of project photos taken: 14 (thirteen were barns or sheds) Title of " roll :" M43, mostly Other photos taken on 3/5/2012: none.