Tag: Abandoned

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 1

My wife and I began a tradition of spending a couple of weeks in Indiana in the fall a few years ago.  There are multiple reasons why we established this tradition.  1.  My wife has relatives in the area, having lived in Indianapolis during her early childhood.  2. A relative allows us to stay in their weekend cabin that is very near Brown County State Park, which is a very popular place in the fall.  3.  We both enjoy seeing fall color in the hardwood forests in this part of the U.S.  4.  I get to photograph the fall color and write about it in this blog.

Timing our visit to see the best of the fall color is always hit or miss.  Sometimes we are too early, sometimes too late and sometimes we see the peak fall color.

Photographing in the same location at the same time of the year is a challenge and I often worry about my photographic images being too repetitive.   After all, how many ways can one photograph trees, forests, barns and fall scenes?  Lots, actually, but how many are unique? Trying to get unique and interesting images is a challenge.  I can only hope that the scenery varies sufficiently, year by year that my images will not be too boring.

Fall Backroad

Driving the backroads of Indiana is a good way to appreciate the fall color and other rural fall country scenes.

Fall Medley
Indiana Barn

The barn in this image sits far back from a roadway on private property.  I shot it with a telephoto lens from the edge of the roadway, hand holding the camera.  I shot from different perspectives trying to get shots with the least amount of that pile of debris in front of it in the image.  However, this image may be the best overall, even with that unsightly mess in front of the barn.

Fall Progression
Bramble Morning

I was a little late for the actual sunrise at this location in Brown County Park, so I walked down a slope into the briars, weeds, grasses and brushy growth, thinking a shot from within all that foreground clutter might at least be different than that of the early photographers that were wrapping up their sunrise shoot from the top of the slope and there was no way to avoid getting that messy foreground in a shot from anywhere here.

I had to spend a considerable amount of time picking the stick tights from my clothing after this mornings’ shoot.

Crooked Tree Fall
Puddle Fall
Exposed
Up a Fall Creek
Fall Tease

Until next time,

Ken

Road Trip Photography Between Destinations – Part 5, September 2022 – House of Eight Gables

This is a continuation of September 2022 road trip photography.

House of Eight Gables 1

This old, abandoned block facade house, sitting in a wide open area along a gravel roadway was visible for some distance from the highway I was traveling on in Kansas.  It is impressive enough to justify a detour to check it out.

Through A Window
Interlocked
House of Eight Gables 2
Corner Collapse
House of Eight Gables 3
Stairwell

Until the next adventure,

Ken

Road Trip Photography Between Destinations – September 2022, Part 4 – Rural Abandonment

This is a continuation of road trip photography of September, 2022.

No More Loads
Pastured
Abandoned Farm House, Kansas
Roofless
Window Sitting
In the Hay

To be continued,

Ken

Road Trip Photography Between Destinations – September 2022, Part 3 – Abandoned Farm Homes

This is a continuation of road trip photography of September 2022.

Prairie Home, Nebraska High Plains
The Gate
Homeward Lean
Still Spins

After shooting and driving away from this abandoned Nebraska home, I realized that I should have used a slow shutter speed to capture the motion of the windmill.  The windmill still spins, but the pump is disconnected.

Old Prairie Home
Stormy Horizon
Duplex Model 55

This is apparently a popular pump gear box that is or was used with windmills.  In researching this item, I found online listing for parts for this model gear box.

Listing Porch Roof
No Panes
Distraught Tree

The evergreen tree on the left seems to be distraught about the dilapidated condition of this abandoned farm house.  Maybe children once played around that tree.  This image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore Page.

Hanging On

Even more road trip images in the next post,

Ken

Road Trip Photography Between Destinations – September 2022, Part 1

When traveling from one destination to another, I always keep an eye out for interesting subjects to photograph.  Taking time to stop and photograph in route helps to break up a trip and it is good to take breaks from sitting in a vehicle for hours at a time.  So if I can afford the time, I will stop as often as necessary to capture images along my route.

Fading Away

There are many abandoned homes throughout rural areas.  Often these can be photographed from a public roadway.  These abandoned places are always on private property and nearly always posted with “No Trespassing” signs.  Please respect others’ property and obey these postings or get permission for access.

Peeling – An abandoned rural church.
Abandoned Church
Bird House
Obsolete
Abandoned Farm or Ranch Home
Untinned
Abandoned Home and Farm Sheds
Terrestrial Lean

When shooting such scenes during a road trip, one can’t be too choosy about the time of day or the lighting conditions.  It is best to get a shot, when the opportunity arrises, as one may never pass this way again.  Indeed, on this trip and others, I’ve often used the excuse of being in a hurry or worrying too much about  shooting conditions and passed up opportunities.  I nearly always regret those decisions.

More road trip shooting next,

Ken

 

Rural Decay and Photography

The first day’s drive towards home was long and I had taken considerable time in the morning, stopping to shoot images in route between Hotchkiss and Gunnison.  I could not spare much more time for in route photo stops, but I knew there were a number of abandoned structures along the remaining route that I might want to stop to photograph, if conditions were suitable.

Abandoned Church

I’ve driven past this abandoned country church many times.  I always wanted to photograph it, but usually it was mid-day, with harsh light and clear sky, when I was passing by.  It was maybe mid-afternoon when I spotted it today, the light was not great, but at least there were big, fluffy clouds to add interest in the sky.  I decided today was maybe the best conditions that I would ever have to photograph here.

Abandoned Church, Monochrome

There is another small town in New Mexico with numerous abandoned structures, where I have stopped a couple of times to photograph, usually under harsh mid-day light.  Today it was late day, just before sunset, when I was in that neighborhood, so I had to stop to see what I could do with more favorable light.

Abandoned School 1
Abandoned School 2
Weathered Door of Abandoned School
Sunset School

I think these are the best photos of these abandoned schools that I have gotten to date.  It was just a matter of fortunate timing to be here as the sun was setting.

A few miles down the road, we noted a full, golden moon on the horizon.  If I had only hung around that small town, I might have had opportunities to get photos of those old abandoned structures with the golden moon in the shots.  We still had a few miles to our night’s lodging and in our haste to get there, I had again blown a good photographic opportunity, one that I will probably never have again.

Until next time,

Ken

 

 

Abandoned Truck in Colorado Mountains

After photographing an abandoned mine mill near Animas Forks, CO, we drove back along a 4 wheel drive road towards Animas Forks, keeping an eye out for an abandoned truck we had been told about.

We soon spotted the truck a short distance up a spur road.

Final Resting Place
Below Peak
No Delivery Today
Forlorn
RIP

Wildflowers and clouds seem to be trying to comfort this old, rusting, abandoned truck in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

Later,

Ken

 

Old Mill

Determined to find an old abandoned truck, that we had been told about, along a 4 wheel drive road, we continued on past Animas Forks.

We had been told that the old truck was just beside the road about a quarter of a mile past Animas Forks.  Yet we drove much farther than a quarter of a mile, passing the old mill we had been told about, too.

At some point past the old, abandoned mill, we decided that we had either missed the truck or that it was much farther along the roadway than we had been told.  We turned back and stopped to photograph the old mill.  As I was getting my camera out, the retired photographer, who had told us about the truck, drove up and informed me that he had been mistaken about the abandoned truck being right next to the road.  Instead, it was up on a hill at the end of a short spur road.  He even pointed to the truck that was barely visible in the distance.

I shot a few photos of the old mill, before back tracking to the old truck.

Mill Reflection
Abandoned Mine Mill
Old Mine Mill 1
Old Mine Mill 2

Next abandoned truck,

Ken

Silverton, Colorado, August 2022

Silverton, Colorado is a picturesque old town nestled below Rocky Mountain peaks along U.S. 550 between Durango and Ouray.  Silverton originated during mining boom times in the nearby mountains and was a rowdy place of saloons and bawdy houses, where the miners came to spend their wages, earned by their hard toiling in the mines.

It is now a major tourist attraction with lots of art galleries, antique shops, souvenir shops of all sorts and numerous restaurants and eating places to choose from.  Nothing here is inexpensive, food or otherwise.

Silverton, CO

When we decided it was time to have lunch, most of the restaurants were crowded, including the limited outdoor seating, which we required, since we were traveling with a miniature labradoodle.

We ended up purchasing sandwiches from a food truck that had picnic tables and umbrellas for shade.  The sandwiches were tasty.  In talking to the lady working in the food truck, we discovered she and the food truck were from East Texas not so far from our home base.  They trailer the food truck to Silverton for the tourist season, live in an RV, then back to Texas in the winter months.  There were lots of Texans in Colorado.  No doubt fleeing the excessively hot and dry summer in Texas this year.

Next up a spur of the moment decision to take a 4 wheel drive road to the ghost town of Animas Forks.

Rusty Truck

Let’s hope we don’t end up like this rusty truck in a Silverton alleyway.

Until then,

Ken

 

Rural Decay and Miscellaneous Photos – March 2022 Travel

Antelope Cafe

Small, rural towns across the U.S have experienced dramatic economic downturns as the agrarian industry evolved from one that required much manpower to one that relied more upon mechanization (machine labor).

I see much evidence of this in my road trips, occasionally taking time to photograph the abandoned businesses and homes, either in small rural towns or those scattered across rural farm and ranch lands.

Fading Facade
15170

The title for this photo is taken from the street number that is hanging upside down on the post to the left of the door.

Wild Horse School

In spite of the obvious economic hardship indicated by numerous abandoned homes and businesses in one small community, this old school seem to be well cared for.

Out to Pasture

Old farm machinery rusting away in this farm field, may have been some of the initial machines that started the economic downturn in this small community.

Alone on the Plains

This lone tree in a vast, post harvest farm field, beneath the wide open sky caused me to pull over for a photo.

Until the next adventure and/or desperate need to photograph something overcomes me,

Ken