Hi photo lovers.
Another Friday, another Foto Flog. This featured photo is of an abandoned building. It was once a Chinese restaurant in Santa Rosa, NM. I drive through a number of areas of the US where I see abandoned buildings and ruins. Increasingly the new normal, I suppose. When I can, I try to document what happened, and tell stories to remind folks of what things had been like.
I am still using my same equipment, and am no professional. If you are an avid photographer, regardless of your skills and professional experience, you are in good company here. Booman Tribune was blessed with very talented photographers in the past. At Progress Pond, we seem to have a few talented photographers now, a few of whom seem to be lurking I suppose.
I have been using an LG v40 ThinQ for the last year. It seems to serve me well, now going on its second year. Occasionally I get to use my old 35 mm, but one of my daughters seems to have commandeered it. In the next year or two I will probably have to go through the whole smart phone purchasing process again. I never look forward to that. I am curious about the cameras on other smartphone models. I now have a daughter using an iPhone 8 (what we could afford). She seems happy with the photo quality. Always curious to get input on smartphone camera quality, as that is one of the variables that I weigh when I do purchase one of those contraptions.
This series of posts is in honor of a number of our ancestors. At one point, there were some seriously great photographers who graced Booman Tribune with their work. They are all now long gone. I am the one who carries the torch. I keep this going because I know that one day I too will be gone, and I really want the work that was started long ago to continue, rather than fade away with me. If I see that I am able to incite a few others to fill posts like these with photos, then I will be truly grateful. In the meantime, enjoy the photos, and I am sure between Booman and myself we can pass along quite a bit of knowledge about the photo flog series from its inception back during the Booman Tribune days.
Since this post usually runs only a day, I will likely keep it up for a while. Please share your work. I am convinced that us amateurs are extremely talented. You will get nothing but love and support here. I mean that. Also, when I say that you don’t have to be a photography pro, I mean that as well. I am an amateur. This is my hobby. This is my passion. I keep these posts going only because they are a passion. If they were not, I would have given up a long time ago. My preference is to never give up.
Peace.
In some ways I think of the ruins I photograph as a metaphor for what has become of the world we once knew. In the meantime, I’ll be breakfasting among the ruins in the morning and acting as if all is still okay.
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As time permits, I have photos of other abandoned buildings, as well as vacant downtown locations that were once thriving.
Is it just me, or is it odd that a user who has never participated before would specifically target a comment from a post from 11 years ago?
I don’t seem attracted to decaying buildings. Maybe that;s because I see so many of them from the train window when I head into Philadelphia. So I’ll send you today an interesting picture of the entryway to a very recent building.
This was the Merc in Kenton, OK in summer 2015. It has deteriorated a bit since. That saddens me. When I and my first-born first visited Kenton, the Merc was active. You could get a fill-up, a burger, and some postcards. All that is left is an increasingly hollowed-out building.
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This once was a home. Taken in Kenton, OK in 2015.
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Interesting choices. Reminds me of a visit years ago to the ruins of an Indian village in the Apache reservation in Arizona. Maybe by next week I’ll have found my pictures of it.
Looking forward to seeing those. There are a number of ghost towns or near-ghost towns out in the high plains region. I’ve traveled through a few. Kenton had a population of 17 during the last census. When I first moved to the OK panhandle, the Kenton was somewhere in the mid-20s. Remaining inhabitants are well into middle-age or elderly. Black Mesa State Park still has some recreational opportunities, and a bed and breakfast I think still operates nearby, so I suspect some tourists will continue to head out that way. The area is popular with amateur astronomers (clear skies and practically no light pollution.
Still unable to find the Apache ruins pictures. Suspect they’re hiding on a CD somewhere. So here’s a scene from a more modern structure in Arizona — Frank Lloyd Wright’s Talliesen West.
Another photo from Kenton, 2015:
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How’s everyone doing? I wore this hat today because I am silly.
Other than being exhausted from a very, very, busy week, I am okay. I hope life is treating you well. I probably should get some silly hats. Would beat the flat caps and fedoras I usually wear.
A view of the Cimarron County Courthouse from the west side of Boise City. There are buildings boarded up that used to have established businesses when I first visited in 2001.
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Decided to leave photos of ruins as the feature for another week. Seemed fitting. Hopefully I will have some time to switch things up a bit. Had a crazy week at work.