Indiana Fall – Page 6 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Indiana Fall 2023, Part 2 – Old, Leaning House

Leaning House 1, October 24, 2023 Bean Blossom Indiana

I first photographed this small, old, abandoned, leaning house in the fall of 2022. It is just off of the highway running through Bean Blossom and Morgantown, Indiana. My wife and I drove past it a number of times this fall (2023) and I stopped once to photograph it, while the trees still retained most of their fall foliage.

There are other homes and buildings nearby this house, which I tried to keep as much out of the photos as possible. That limited how I could compose these images.

Leaning House 2, October 24, 2023 Bean Blossom Indiana

Leaning House 3, October 24, 2023 Bean Blossom Indiana

As I returned across the highway to my vehicle, a woman leaving the parking lot stopped to tell me that there had been more old structures where the parking lot and a store were now located. All those had been taken down to put in the store and parking lot. I wish I had been around to photograph those now missing structures.

More fall photos later,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2023, Part 1

As has become a tradition, my wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Indiana in the fall of 2023. We stay in a cabin just a short distance outside of Brown County State Park, a popular park for fall leaf peepers.

I visited the park. on a number of our days in the vicinity, for photography and even when traveling to another destination, we most often took a route through the park just to enjoy the beautiful fall color in the park.

Brown County State Park 1, October 24, 2023

All of the photos in this post were shot at or near one of the overlooks within the park.

We had an interesting encounter at this location. I noted a park visitor on an electric bike and I asked him about his bike. He was kind enough to give me much information about the bike, its features and even how much he paid for it. When my wife joined in the conversation, she discovered that the biker and she had attended the same high school. Even though they attended the school some years apart, they knew some of the same people that were students at that school. Such a small world consequence!

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2022 – Rainy Day at the Cabin

During the two weeks we were in Indiana this fall, we witnessed how fleeting the beauty of fall color can be.

These images were made from the back balcony of our cabin one rainy, misty day. When we first arrived, those bare trees had leaves and the tree on the left was nearly all green with only slight color beginning to show at the extremities of one branch.

Astute observers will note that these images are all of the same general scene with various compositions. The light rain, wetting the scene, brought out the color in the gray tree trunks, bare limbs and foliage, while at the same time muting the more distant trees.

Later,

Ken

Indiana Fall 2022 – Nashville

Nashville, Indiana is the nearest town to the cabin we stay in while visiting Indiana in the fall. It is a quaint tourist town with all that such towns offer – lots of tourist, crowds, expensive stores selling all kinds of goods, expensive restaurants, limited parking.

I am not a fan of such places, but it is always mandatory to take in some of this tourist town on each visit. I usually end up pacing the sidewalk, while my wife shops.

Sometimes I shoot a few photographs of the local scene with my iPhone camera.

Decorative grass and flowers are common along the streets of downtown Nashville. The sunlight highlighting the plumes on this one inspired me to shoot it, cropping in close to exclude the street scene.

Nashville is most popular in the fall with the nearby Brown County State Park a draw for leaf peepers. Artwork and crafts related to fall are common place.

This is a small portion of an alleyway wall mural.

That’s it for today,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 5 – Rustic Barn and Abandoned Home

I first saw this old barn and a nearby abandoned house, while in route to another destination. I came back a few days later to photograph these old, rustic buildings.

Quaint, Old, Abandoned Indiana Farm House

The image above was selected for Flickr’s Explore Page.

More fall in Indian 2022 later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 4 – Indiana Backroads

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but here it is again: Backroads are often the best way to find uncommon beauty. Or maybe that should be common beauty, since it is all around us, but maybe taken for granted.

Is this a natural scar or a portal into another world? If a portal, would the other world be weirder than our’s today?

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 3 – Rustic Farm Barn and Sheds

Traveling an Indiana backroad I saw a group of old, rustic farm structures in various stages of structural failure. The roadway was narrow. Parking alongside the roadway and photographing from the roadway would not be satisfactory nor very safe. There was only one house nearby, so I stopped and knocked on the door. A lady with her hair in curlers opened the door and I briefly explained why I was there, asking if it would be ok for me to photography those old structures. She quickly said she was sure it would be ok, although, I’m rather sure she was not the owner, but maybe others have asked her this same question.

There was a short grassy, dirt road at the old buildings. I parked on that dirt road, just off of the pavement far enough for safety and proceeded to walk around the area photographing the buildings from various angles.

Gathering Grass – Monochrome with Selective Colorization

A rolling stone may gather no moss, but a stationary wheel can gather grass.

I lived in a house with this same number many years ago.

After photographing the rustic farm building, I continued to meander around the backroads looking for other fall photographic opportunities. This final photo is a teaser for the next post.

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2022, Part 2

In Brown County State Park I walked along a creek capturing fall color alongside the creek bed.

Having an interest in geology, I had to include some of the rock layers exposed along the creek bed.

There were only a few shallow puddles of water in the creek, so walking in and along the creek bed did not require getting my feet wet.

More fall in Indiana later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 18 – T. C. Steele Historic Site

I found the T. C. Steele Historic Site marked on an online map of the area around my operational base in Indiana. I had never heard of T. C. Steele, so I did what I usually do in such situations. I searched for information on the internet and discovered that T. C. Steele (1847 – 1926) was an American Impressionist painter, and a member of a group known as the Hoosier Group of painters. I decided it worth while to check out this historic site.

The site is located at the actual home and studio in the countryside, where T.C and his wife lived and worked. There were maybe a couple of more visitors at the site, when I arrived at a fair sized, newish looking parking lot that even had an electric vehicle charging station.

As I walked towards the visitor center, I stopped at the wagon with iron rimmed, wood spoked wheels that served as T. C.’s portable studio. The wagon is a custom built, enclosed wagon with a wood burning stove in one corner. I made a few iPhone images of the interior and exterior, but none were sufficient to fully capture the utility and quaintness of the vehicle.

There is a modest fee, payable at the visitor center. There are scheduled tours that one can take to see the interior of the studios and there are hiking trails around the grounds, garden and through a portion of the Hoosier National Forest across the road from the site.

I elected to walk the grounds on my own, then take a trail through the forest.

Golden Tree, T. C. Steele Historic Site Grounds

The grounds and gardens are attractive and pleasant to walk through. I was impressed by the large hardwood trees on the site, but my attempts to photograph those trees and showcase the grounds did not work out well.

I chose a forest trail and hoped for better photographic results in the woods.

Yellow and Green, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

Woodland Path, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

The sheer volume of objects in a forest make it difficult to get really unique images (at least for me). I went through my photos a number of times, thinking most were a lost cause, before finally beginning to choose a few to edit.

Deep Woods, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

Hillside, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

Photos in forest can seem so much alike, that I get easily discouraged trying to capture the scenes.

Intimate Hillside, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

Green Profusion or Intimate Forest, Hoosier National Forest at T. C. Steele Historic Site, Indiana, Fall 2021

In the end it seems that forest photos are mostly about colors, textures and light, since most of the objects in the photos are so much alike. I struggle to come up with good titles for images, especially the forest ones. I could not decide which title was best for the image above, so I gave it two.