Virjune Manufacturing Co: Inside Waterbury's Vacant Factory

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J and I were already having a rough day. We'd just driven across town to check out an old industrial site he hadn't visited in a while, only to find it erased. Nothing left but a slab of concrete and chain-link fence. So we took a detour. Sometimes you salvage a disappointing afternoon with a backup plan, even if you're just ticking a box. The former Virjune plant hides in plain sight off Thomaston Avenue. If you drive past in summer, you'll miss it completely. Trees and shrubs swallow the building whole, nature reclaiming what industry left behind. Come winter, though, when the branches go bare and the world turns gray, the red brick skeleton reveals itself. Even then, you have to know where to look. I pulled up old Sanborn maps to trace the building's history. The earliest tenant was an auto body shop in 1922. By February 1950, something bigger had moved in. The map labels it simply "Stamping Wks." No company name. No flourish. Just function. That namele...
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Chain Link Daisy

Two Daisy Flowers Behind Metal Fence
Daisy over the fence

Prickly Green Weeds Behind Chainlink Fence
Amongst the Weeds


I am loving this old Yashionon-DS 1.4 50mm. I am really in love it with it to say the least. Too bad my nifty-fifty is on the shelf dust tanning. This morning I took some quick shots in the garden over the fence. Really liked how it turned out. You can really see the bokeh in the background. I really need to get this lens aperture ring fix since I can only shoot wide open (f/16) and not at f/1.4. I'll get to the lens repair place sometime this summer. These are RAW unedited JPEG's straight from the camera.


Lens: Yashica Yashinon-DS 50mm 1:1.4

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