This old house in a small rural town has so much lean that it appears to be relishing its status with a “swagger”. It was raining lightly, when I stopped to photograph here, so I moved around as expeditiously as I could, while capturing these images. Weeks later, when I got around to processing these images, I at first thought that my lens had distorted this old house, since I did not recall noting this much lean in real time. After examing multiple images, I had to conclude that the lean was not exaggerated by my camera.
Swagger 2Swagger 3
The concrete pad out front with the water hydrant, makes me think this could have been a business site, maybe an old service station?
Across the street from “Swagger”, is this old boarded up house with a metal roof that seems to be in much better condition than the rest of the house. Maybe this place has not been abandoned for too many years.
There were a number of other abandoned homes and other old structures in the same neighborhood. “Made in the Shade” house seems to be relaxing in the shade of a tree, retired after a long life of sheltering others.
On my way to and from Badlands National Park in early June 2025, I drove through many small towns and rural areas between Texas and South Dakota. I always keep my eyes open for photographic opportunities to break up the long drives. One of my favorite targets for such are old, rural structures, especially those that appear to have been abandoned. This post will feature some of those photographs from this trip.
I spotted this magnificent old house just a few miles before my first ovenight stop over in Kansas. It sits well back from the roadway in an open field. I shot from a fence line near the roadway with my 24-70mm, then used my 80-400mm to get a closer view of the house.
Alone 2Alone 3
The following day, not long after leaving my overnight area, I spotted more intriguing structures, which required some minor rerouting to get close enough to shoot.
This stone house appears to be in fairly good condition, but seems to be abandoned. It is not far from a dirt road, but there is no indication of any roadway access to this structure.
I had to walk a considerable distance on a muddy, dirt road in a drizzling rain to get close enough to shoot this old one and even then I had to stop at a fence line and photograph from a distance. I had only brought my 24-70mm lens mounted on my D850 and wished I had put on my 80-400mm, when I had to stop at that fenceline.
There was another, smaller structure, in similar condition, down the hill from the house, but I was too far away to get a good shot of that with my 24-70mm.
Roofless 3
I would have liked to have gotten closer, but I did not want to cross that fenceline and trespass, since that fence was obviously there to keep people out. There was no evidence of graffiti, which I suspect is an indication of the lack of easy access from the local roadways and the remote rural location of this structure.
We returned to the area refered to as White Rocks in Southern Utah for an early morning shoot. I switched from the Nikon D850 and 24-70mm lens to the Nikon Z8 and Nikon Z14-24mm for this shoot.
After climbing out of the White Rocks canyon, which was already nearly all in shadow, I paused to capture a few shots over the canyon and the landscape around the canyon. The sun was low in the sky, not quite golden hour, but the lighting was good. We still had to hike back to our vehicle and make a slow drive out of this area, which is best done in daylight, so we never quite waited for sunset.
The square shape of the head on this hoodoo looks as if it could have been purposely shaped. Getting this image with that georgeous sky behind it was a bonus.
Square Head from another view point
Maybe those rocks in the foreground are from previous hoodoos here?
This post is a continuation of photography in an area of Southern Utah that is commonly referred to as “White Rocks”. There are many interesting rock features in this area.
I have to admit to cheating a little in the editing of this first image. In the original image there was a big rock where the two in the foreground are now. I found that single, large rock distracting, so I used Lightroom’s AI tool to break that rock into smaller rocks. This tool is often used to remove objects, but it can also modify objects. the tool creates three choices from which to choose at each activation and one can repeat the activation, if none of the choices are desirable. I could have completely removed that big rock, but that did not seem appropriate, so I chose this broken rock alternative, which I think fits better with the other rocks in the “Broken Circle”. Some will object to this blatant modification of a landscape, but I’ve finally gotten to the point of seeing such photography as much as art as in faithfully copying what nature provides. So I’m ok with modifications, within reasonable limits and we have to use our own judgment as to what is “reasonable”.
Geologist refer to these rock features as “hoodoos” or “toadstools”. To me the rock atop the pedestal in the foreground here looks like a toad. So Maybe this is a “Toad’s Stool”.
I titled this “Parent and Child”, but I can also see it as a dog with its tail sticking up. Some people’s pareiodlia may see it otherwise, but in the end it is another of natures marvelous creations, no matter how we perceive it.
I made this second image of “Parent and Child” a few minutes after the first, composing from a different angle. Within those few minutes, the sky in the background had changed significantly due to the windy conditions, illustrating how a minor change in view point and changing environmently conditions can affect a photograph.
A close up of the hoodoo with the pink bonnet in the previous image and a conversion to monochrome, give a completly different interpretation to this scene.
Getting into a position to make this image was not easy. Steep slopes with gravel size rock chips and thin layers of sand over the hard rock surface and other obstacles, made moving around treacherous and positioning awkward.
These hoodoos are the same one presented in individual photos. Grouping these into one shot, I’m imagining a father, child and mother in these rock shapes, all peering down into the valley below.
Another group of hoodoos that look like a family unit. Dad in the background, mom on the right, casting a sideways look at the child in a curious manner.
That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more Southern Utah landscapes,
