Gay Michigan

I'm going to just say this. Visiting Gay, Michigan was probably one of the most interesting places I've ever visited.

It is located in Keweenaw County. 

Copper Mining at Gay

I actually read the history of the town and was intrigued. Immigrants were taught English as well as working at the Stamping Mill. The company constructed homes and schools.

The town has a beautiful playground now that seems to be cared for by the local residents.

We decided to go visit the ruins.

The ruins inspired me to 'shoot' them in Infrared B&W. 

These miner figures were painted in various areas of the ruins. It reminded me that this area held ghosts and the history of immigrants coming to our country to work in harsh conditions and raise families. 

What was it like, how difficult was it? I was so curious I read more history of the place. 

Was it noisy? Was it smelly, was the work difficult? I couldn't help but feel the vibe of the place.

I had to take a shot of Jer walking through the ruins for perspective. Yep, it looks a bit spooky, but that is how I wanted to portray it.

Here is a photo from the Keweenaw County Historical Society:

In the photo above you can see the smoke stack, there was some sort of processing that needed a chute [????] to dump the waste out in the Lake.

 

I couldn't resist more than one angle of these wooden supports.

Who can resist a little family portrait in the ruins???

I'll go back here and there is another set of ruins that Jer says I just 'have to see'. I guess I was so fascinated by them.

And of course.

It was the perfect place to do some toy photography. Yep. I brought characters just for this place.

I won't put them all in here, but I had a fantastic series of shots.

....Oh.

And my son thoroughly got immersed in the process, we found out something we had in common.

Below.

I handed him the camera and to set up Homeless Joe and his Dog with a background of the wooden structures and alien looking landscape.

After several tries he ended up with this. I'm proud that he took me up on the challenge since he has never operated any other camera other than a cell phone.

I won't bore you with the series of photos we did while in the ruins. It was fun, creative, and so much fun for me.