A Walk About in Owen County Saturday Oct 27, 2007

pathfinder · October 30, 2007

Purplepug and I went walk-about in Owen County last Saturday. ( Actually we drove about a bit also)

We didn't have any specific goals in mind, the weather was gray, overcast, not really raining and not really dry. We were hoping for some fall color finally:D

We are called cockeyed optimists:thumb

We saw an abandoned house back in the hills - as drab and gray as the day was. It has only recently been abandoned, but it is completely surrounded by grown up weeds. It had two TV antennas and a DISH TV antenna as well:D

:dunno

We, then, wandered around Spencer's town square a bit. I saw a couple of ghost signs - I love ghost signs ( they are not everyone's cup of tea - but Walker Evans collected them so I do too )

We shot a few frames in the cemetery in Spencer, where there is a nice monument to veterans of the US military, including the Revolutionary War. This was not something I am used to seeing in Indiana, which did not become a state until December 11, 1816, almost forty years after the Revolution. The Revolutionary monument was back in the deep shade, and very worn, hard to even read with strong side lighting.

There was also a pair of Parrott guns from the Civil War, dark, black, and foreboding. Stuck near a trunnion of the barrel, I saw a few brief remaining bits of fall color.

We, then, left and found our way to the Green Bluff Nature Preserve at the end of small gravel road to nowhere . There was a wet, muddy walkway down to the bluff. A few leaves were to be seen along the way.

The Bluff is a shear rock face with a thin, muddy pathway along it down to the creek below. Plants, eternal optimists, are trying to make a living from its face.

We called it a day, and as I was driving home I came across more recent "art work" on a highway overpass.

This is a brief summary of a few hours with the Purplepug last Saturday. A pretty nice time at the end of the day.

Shane422 · October 30, 2007

Nice work. You've taken a place I always thought of as ordinary, and made it extraordinary.

I grew up in Ellettsville, just about 10 more miles East on St Rd 46, and my mother is from Spencer. Did you visit the State Park in Spencer as well?

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

Every small town has something unique about it, if you look hard enough.

I do think it is easier to see the unique, if you did not grow up around it. We become too used to our own surroundings to see them well. I think that is part of the human condition.

Thanks for the kind words, Shane. I've been driving through Ellettsville, on the way to Bloomington, for over 40 years.

adddendum :

We did not get to McCormick's Creek State Park, but I plan to try to shoot in several state parks this winter if the weather and my schedule permits.

During the summer of 2006, gluwater stayed with Nightingale and I for a week in Michigan on vacation. He gave us a book titled "Unexpected Indiana: A Portfolio of Natural Landscapes" by Ron Leonetti and Chrisopher Jordan. I heartily recommend it. It will give you a new perspective on nature photography in Indiana. It turns out that landscapes and nature shots are to be found in every state, even Indiana. The photographer, was a native Coloradan, and Indiana was new and intriguing to him, I suspect.

Another book is "Wild and Scenic Indiana" by Rich Clark ( the photographer ) and SR Sanders that makes it impossible for me to blame the local landscape for lack of opportunities.

Awais Yaqub · October 31, 2007

Very beautiful shots

zweiblumen · October 31, 2007

Do I see a bit of Schmoo rubbing off on you PF?

The wet roof on the (recently) abandoned house really works for me.

I love the memorial shot. I love the stark lighting in it.

Thanks for sharing!

schmoo · October 31, 2007

I love seeing your shots of the old painted signs on brick. I always think of such things as "ghosts," too. They have a lot of them here in Baltimore and over the years I always meant to document them but... that never actually happened.

One of the most interesting occurrences of these is a coworker I had who was renovating her downtown rowhome. When she took down the plaster in her master bedroom to expose the brick wall, she found an old ghost sign painted behind there. Talk about lucky!

Sorry for the tangent. I really dig your unique way of picking out interesting details wherever you travel. I'm motivated to get out of the house whenever I have time and take a closer look at the places I think I already know.

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

zweiblumen wrote:

Do I see a bit of Schmoo rubbing off on you PF?
The wet roof on the (recently) abandoned house really works for me.

I love the memorial shot. I love the stark lighting in it.

Thanks for sharing!

Ahh... I was here first!!:D

You and Schmoo and I, among others, all do seem to share some similar tastes in images. Old, abandoned buildings, peeling paint, rust. (I wish mine were one half as good as hers routinely are.) Not sure what the psychiatrists would say about these kind of ruminations though.

I am glad you liked my images from the cemetery - I thought the yellow leaf on the black trunnion was my best catch of the day.

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Very beautiful shots

Thanks Awais.

It is funny, you post glorious images of modern, architectural marvels in Pakistan, and I post abandoned relics from Indiana. Strange, is it not??

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

schmoo wrote:

I love seeing your shots of the old painted signs on brick. I always think of such things as "ghosts," too. They have a lot of them here in Baltimore and over the years I always meant to document them but... that never actually happened.

One of the most interesting occurrences of these is a coworker I had who was renovating her downtown rowhome. When she took down the plaster in her master bedroom to expose the brick wall, she found an old ghost sign painted behind there. Talk about lucky!

Sorry for the tangent. I really dig your unique way of picking out interesting details wherever you travel. I'm motivated to get out of the house whenever I have time and take a closer look at the places I think I already know.

I am glad you enjoyed my ghost signs, as I know that not everyone finds them that appealing. But some of us stiil do. I am glad to find another fan of ghost signs. For me, I think it is the physical manifestation of how transient, non-permanent that reality really is, that appeals to me.

Here is one from West Virginia, almost unreadable with the naked eye.
It required a little contrast enhancement in Photoshop to even make it barely legible

Another type of image that I find very humorous is mis-spelled official signs. Signs from the DOT, municipal authority, or someone who did not take time to check their spelling before they mounted their signage. They proudly(?) put up their mistake for all the world to enjoy

Somewhere I have picture from a Nebraska state park that points to the beach, and proudly says "Baech" and it was still there a few weeks ago ( I can't seem to find the file right now

! )

Here's one for the Cottonwood Forest" turn off

Shane422 · October 31, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Thanks for the kind words, Shane. I've been driving through Ellettsville, on the way to Bloomington, for over 40 years.

You're driving right past our family farm then. We have the big pond/small lake right on the highway about a mile east of the buffalo farm just west of Ellettsville.

My dad's making the reverse trip daily to Terre Haute (Ivy Tech).

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

Howdy Hoosier, I know that area!! Ivy Tech is less than 1/2 mile down the road from me as I sit here..

I've always thought I would love to photograph those buffs some winter day after a snowfall.

dmmattix · October 31, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Here is one from West Virginia, almost unreadable with the naked eye.
It required a little contrast enhancement in Photoshop to even make it barely legible

Thanks for the tip. I have a number of these locally that are interesting to me but seem barely legible to the eye. I will now try to photograph them and bring them out.

Thanks again

Mike

pathfinder · October 31, 2007

Sometimes a little curve will bring them out, sometimes I blend one channel to another via the Apply Image command like rutt taught me.

mANVIL · November 2, 2007

Great set. I love stopping in small towns like these, they always have some unique characterstic and you've obviously captured this one well.

You and Schmoo and I, among others, all do seem to share some similar tastes in images. Old, abandoned buildings, peeling paint, rust.

I remember once I was on the top of an idle blast furnace at a steel mill in Pittsburgh. I normally dislike graffiti but someone had scribled "I Lust for the Rust!" on one of the walls. I always thought that would make a cool slogan on a shirt. Too bad they would probably only sell about 4 though (you, me, zwei, schmoo...)

schmoo · November 2, 2007

mANVIL wrote:

I always thought that would make a cool slogan on a shirt. Too bad they would probably only sell about 4 though (you, me, zwei, schmoo...)

Zazzle

jziegler · November 2, 2007

Some great shots here.

I like the old signs too. Nice old house.

The older small towns just have great things in them, when you know where to look.

The mispelled signs are cool too. When I was in middle school, the district built two new buildings, and put on awnings with the names on them. In one, they mispelled school. I'd love to have a picture of that now. Of course, the best bad signs ever are in China. But, that's another story.

Regards,
James

A Walk About in Owen County Saturday Oct 27, 2007

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