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 ChurchBird HouseObsoleteAbandoned Farm or Ranch HomeUntinnedAbandoned Home and Farm ShedsTerrestrial 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.
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 1Abandoned School 2Weathered Door of Abandoned SchoolSunset 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.
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 Facade15170
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,
A few days into our fall 2021 visit to Indiana, the fall colors had still not progressed very much; but I was restless and needed to get out to explore the area. By doing so, I might find areas to visit later, when the colors were better.
After consulting a map of the local area, I decided to head to Monroe Lake State Park, southeast of Bloomington.
Monroe Lake State Park, Indiana
My base was just south of Brown County State Park (the red rectangle in the upper right corner). The quickest route to Monroe Lake would be into Nashville, then west on US 46 towards Bloomington, but I had traveled that route numerous times already and I wanted to check out the backroads, so I meandered through the countryside farmland and forest, approaching Lake Monroe from the south, crossing the causeway into Paynetown.
I can’t recall the exact route that I took and I doubt that I could duplicate it even if I wanted to. Many county backroads were involved. I drove through a number of small communities, some that were little more than a few houses at crossroads.
Along the way, I found a small, abandoned country store and stopped to get a few photos.
Abandoned Country Store
This photo shows some fall color, but it is still not fully developed.
I had hoped there would be scenic views from the long causeway over Monroe Lake, but that was a disappointment. There were no places to stop on the causeway, so I could not have gotten any photos from there, anyway.
Arriving at the state park entrance, I paid the entry fee and drove to a large parking lot at a boat launch area. The lot was mostly empty. I walked a path towards a floating boat dock and noted that there were many geese on the shore across the inlet. So I returned to my vehicle and put on my 80-400mm lens with a 1.4 extension.
I returned to the boat dock and shot numerous images of the geese, but I was still too far away to get really good images. A group of geese swam from the shore across the inlet to the boat launch area, where I shot a few more images.
Marching Geese
I could not get too close to the geese, as they would move away as I got too close. I thought it interesting how they seemed to follow a leader along the roadway at the boat launch. I cropped the image above from one of my shots.
I drove around the rest of the park afterwards, but did not see anything else I wanted to photograph today. There were only a few people in the park, but I expect this is a popular place in the warmer months. I noted there were a number of hiking trails in the forest and this is probably a good place for a forest hike, if I return later.
I explored a side road into the Hoosier National Forest off of my return route, but cut my exploration short, since I was low on gasoline and there were no filling stations along my backcountry route.
Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and East Side, New Mexico
After photographing the exterior of this old, abandoned church at the outskirts of a small New Mexico town, I ventured through the open doorway (there was no door) to check out the interior.
Abandoned Church, Interior Graffiti, Just inside the doorway
I had noted much graffiti just looking through the doorway and windows. Judging by the dates and graffiti messages, it looks like this place is popular with teenagers, presumably local ones, since this is a long way from any other towns or cities.
Abandoned Church, Interior and Graffiti
Shooting handheld in the dim light inside the church required high ISO to get sufficiently high shutter speeds to avoid fuzzy images. Shooting through windows from inside resulted in blowing out the exterior portions of the images.
Abandoned Church, Interior and Graffiti, Pulpit
I’ve brought out some of the exterior details in the editing process in the image above just to avoid having a white blur in the windows. The exterior details through the windows are very low quality as a result. If I had not been shooting handheld, I could have acquired images to create HDR images.
The floor boards were still sound, so maybe the missing boards are a result of someone looking for hidden treasure.
Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling
The ceiling bead board had a nice patina and mostly appeared to be in good condition. The covers to the ceiling light fixtures were all missing, presumably broken or maybe stolen. There were remnants of broken light bulbs in the fixtures.
There were no window panes so a breeze through the windows made the hanging light fixtures sway. I had to increase the ISO even more to freeze the motion of these.
Obviously some electrical item had been removed from the central portion of the ceiling. I’m guessing a ceiling fan had been here and has been stolen, if not removed legally, since those early day fans might be valuable antiques.
As I traveled towards my second overnight destination in route to the Grand Canyon North Rim in July 2021, I spotted an abandoned church about a block north of the highway at the edge of a small New Mexico town. I had to stop to check out this old church.
The roadway from the highway to the church was gravel, but in good condition. There were other homes or building visible from the church site, but none were very close to the church, making it stand out from its surroundings.
I walked around the exterior photographing the church from various angles and capturing some of the exterior details, before I ventured through the front doorway.
Abandoned Church Exterior, Weathered and Scared SidingAbandoned Church Exterior, Weathered Siding
This post is dedicated to the exterior views. It was afternoon and the lighting was not great for capturing this weathered old church, but I knew I might not pass by again for a long time, if ever, so I had to make the best of the photographic conditions.
Abandoned Church Exterior, East SideAbandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior ViewAbandoned Church Exterior, Back and East SideAbandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior ViewAbandoned Church Exterior, Back and West SideAbandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior ViewAbandoned Church Exterior, Front and West Side, New MexicoAbandoned Church Exterior, Window and View to Interior CeilingAbandoned Church Exterior, Front and West Side, New MexicoAbandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View
There is a small Texas town that I drive by on my trips westward and each time I go through it, I think I should someday take time to get off the highway and see what is in this old Texas town. Finally, on one of my homeward bound trips, I did just that.
This is not a ghost town, there are still residents, businesses, a post office, city hall, and some modern improvements, but I found numerous abandoned businesses in and around the downtown area and even an older, abandoned city hall.
I shot numerous photos, but many of the settings and the mid-day light were not conducive to getting interesting shots, so I’ve greatly culled the images to present in this post and I had to do some creative editing to add interest to these images.
Auto Sales
There is a crumbling building that was an auto sales business long ago.
Auto Sales
Given the smallness of this Texas town, I was surprised to find the remnants of an auto sales place here. This one appears to have been abandoned many years ago.
Barred Window
The back side of one of the downtown area’s abandoned business had a couple of windows, one of which had concrete rebar installed for security.
Flower and Window
The adjacent window had no bars and the lower glass pane was missing.
Wildflowers and WindowsBack Door
A street corner building had an interesting looking backside. The image above is cropped from a wider view to remove distracting items. The monochrome conversion seems more fitting for this subject than the original color version.
Down the road a few miles from the old ranch and windmill, depicted in the previous post, is a small community, that was once more vibrant. Like many rural towns in the US, it has suffered from the evolving economy and technological advances that result in lost livelihoods. As people move away and are not replaced, homes and businesses are abandoned.
I have stopped in this community once previously to photograph an abandoned school under a clear sky. There were scattered clouds today, so I figured I might get more interesting images this time through.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.
Just down the gravel street from this school was another one that I had neglected to photograph during my first stop here.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico.
Those big fluffy clouds added much interest and black and white seemed a good treatment of the images.
Abandoned school on the high plains of New Mexico
I could see a number of other abandoned homes and structures scattered around this little community, so I took time to photograph a few of those.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico
Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico
Abandoned commercial building on the high plains of New Mexico.
Dilapidated Windmill and Water Storage Tanks on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
The trees die as they are abandoned along with the houses and other buildings.
Abandoned stone fence and home on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
The final image in this post was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and so far has received 5737 views and 192 favorites.
I had seen a number of abandoned houses and/or ranch/farm structures along my route home on previous trips this way. I decided that I would take time to photograph a few of these on my way home.
Roof Collapsing.
Abandoned House and Sheds
A closer look at the sheds
A closer look at the house
Abandoned House
All of the structures in the photos above are in close proximity to each other and on private property. I’m sure all of these were part of one settlement, ranch or other operation at one time. These are just off of a major highway, so they are easily observed by anyone traveling that highway.
The abandoned house in the following photos is not very near a highway, but it can be spotted from a major highway by a careful observer.
That’s all for this portion of my homeward journey,
I have driven the same route through the Texas Panhandle numerous times in my travels, seeing numerous old, abandoned houses and businesses. Occasionally, I will take a few minutes to stop and photograph some of these, if I have time in my schedule to do so.
This house is just off of a highway and almost completely surrounded by high grass and trees. I had made a mental note of it several times and finally decided to stop by to photograph it.
The view above is seen as one is driving to the northwest. If driving from the the northwest, the house is almost hidden and can easily be overlooked.
The sun was almost directly overhead, the light bright and harsh, so I converted the images to monochrome, which gives more pleasing images under these conditions.
I photographed all around the house, but with the dense vegetation, I did not get good images from other view points.
Abandoned house on the high plains of New Mexico.
Abandoned House and Sheds
