Top 35 Photos of 2016

The end of 2016 is fast approaching with over 9,000 photographs snapped, 35,000 miles traveled, and 200 new locations explored and documented. Through it all, the song I Can See Clearly Now best exemplifies the struggles and successes of this year and the optimism I hold of 2017.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.
I can see all obstacles in my way.
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.

Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone.
All of the bad feelings have disappeared.
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.

Look all around, there’s nothing but blue skies.
Look straight ahead, there’s nothing but blue skies.

I can see clearly now the rain is gone.
I can see all obstacles in my way.
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.
It’s gonna be a bright, bright. sunshiny day.
Yeah, hey, it’s gonna be a bright bright sunshiny day.

It’s been a wild adventure. The 35 photographs selected for the best of 2016 exemplify the range of and type of locations, from prisons to tunnels and iconic attractions.

• Long exposure of the abandoned West Virginia Motor Speedway;
• Night shot of the closed Longaberger Basket Company Home Office near Newark, Ohio;
• Collection of teeth molds and a dusty bowling alley at an abandoned Veterans Administration Hospital;
• Winter scene of a circa 1880 residence in Ithaca, New York;
• Atop Warner & Swasey in Cleveland, Ohio;
• Inside the “Treatment Room” at a state hospital in New York;
• Colorful Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company Housing in Youngstown, Ohio;
• Church of the Transfiguration in Buffalo, New York;
• Inside the partially demolished Crowell-Collier Publishing Company in Youngstown, Ohio;
• Sunset at the partially collapsed Kinzua Bridge in Pennsylvania;
• Stunning Old Hickory residence in Cloudersport, Pennsylvania;
• Late evening scenes from Northville Psychiatric Hospital in Michigan;
• Inside the lockup at the Detroit House of Correction near Detroit, Michigan;
• Brookes Building in East Liverpool, Ohio
• Intricate details of a staircase at Crockery City Brewery in East Liverpool, Ohio;
• Long disused and collapsed railroad tunnel for the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad in southern Ohio;
• Flooded railroad tunnel for the Cleveland & Marietta Railroad in southern Ohio;
• Long abandoned tunnel for the Eastern Kentucky Railway in northeast Kentucky;
• Piles of computers at National Acme in Cleveland, Ohio;
• An abandoned locomotive in Ohio;
• Inside the abandoned Mathias coal mine in Pennsylvania;
• An abandoned residence in rural Pennsylvania;
• A flooded railroad tunnel for the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad in eastern Ohio;
• The abandoned Mary on an island in the Ohio River;
• An abandoned railroad tunnel for the Wheeling Terminal Railway in Wheeling, West Virginia;
• Inside an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Akron, Ohio;
• Long forgotten suitcases in the Columbiana County Infirmary in Lisbon, Ohio.

Here is to a bright 2017.