Tag: Rural Decay

Abandoned Church, New Mexico, July 2021, Interior Views

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.

Abandoned Church, Interior Graffiti
Abandoned Church, Interior, Floor

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.

Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling
Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling

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.

Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling
Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling
Abandoned Church, Interior, Ceiling

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.

This wraps up my photography here.

Until next time,

Ken

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abandoned Church, New Mexico, July 2021, Exterior Views

Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and East Side

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 Siding
Abandoned 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 Side
Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View
Abandoned Church Exterior, Back and East Side
Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View
Abandoned Church Exterior, Back and West Side
Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View
Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and West Side, New Mexico
Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and View to Interior Ceiling
Abandoned Church Exterior, Front and West Side, New Mexico
Abandoned Church Exterior, Window and Interior View

I will post photographs from the interior next.

Until then,

Ken

 

 

Rural Decay, June, 2021

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 Windows
Back 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.

Thanks for following,

Ken

 

Abandoned Houses and Structures on the High Plains of New Mexico, March 2021

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.

Until next time,

Ken

Abandoned Houses and Structures, Colorado, March 2021

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,

Ken

Abandoned House, Texas Panhandle, September 28, 2020

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.

Abandoned House. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 250.

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.

Abandoned House. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 38mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 250.

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.

Ken

 

Abandoned Houses and Other Buildings

On road trips, I am always amazed and intrigued by the many abandoned, deteriorating houses and business building that I see, especially in rural areas.  I’ve taken more note of these on my most recent trips through northwestern Texas and portions of Colorado, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Tennessee.

An abandoned farm house along US 287 in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nike Silver Efex Pro 2.

It has occurred to me that an interesting photographic project would be to seek out, photograph and document many of the more prominent and interesting abandoned buildings, perhaps, even documenting the history of those structures, the ownership and the stories behind how these came to be abandoned.  One would also need to get permission from the appropriate people to photograph those that require getting onto private property to do so and this would take time and effort.  A project of this magnitude would be a major undertaking and one that I am not likely to have sufficient time to pursue.  However, I might try to take more time to photograph some of those easily accessible ones that I encounter on my journeys.

An abandoned house in rural Texas along US 287 with a newer farm house in the background. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

On the last leg of my most recent trip, between Amarillo and DFW, I eventually decided to take time to photograph a few, after passing up many other interesting looking abandoned houses.  I only shot a few of these dilapidated structures, as I had a travel schedule and I could not take too much time stopping frequently for photos.

An abandoned farm house along US 287 in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
Abandoned house along US 287 in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
An abandoned business type building in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
An abandoned house in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Color Efex Pro 2.

A dedicated project to photograph these abandoned structures could take much time, especially, if one were to try to get the photographs from early morning to about mid-morning or middle to late afternoon.  Photographing during various seasons would also be good, maybe getting fall color or spring flowering plants into the compositions, where possible, and maybe winter photos with snow on and around the old homes.

Abandoned farm buildings in northwestern Texas. iPhone photo, edited in Adobe LR and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

I will keep this idea in the back of my mind and maybe take a trip just to photograph these nostalgic buildings.  I’m sure there are many of these scattered throughout the countryside near me; but those might take much exploring to find.  On the other hand, there are many visible along major US and State highways throughout rural areas near many small towns, where changing economic conditions result in the displacement of people and businesses.

I will welcome readers’ suggestions on this topic.  Maybe some of you are aware of interesting, abandoned houses and can share information about those.

Ken