109 – Floor
From the wide world of things that make you go, “what the?!?” A little chunk of floor, from an old bank (obviously) which has been laid up against this tree so long it’s grown over… I went back and forth between B/W and color on this one, and various shades of in-betweens. Finally settled on the “crisp” preset to give it some subdued moodiness…because that seems like a good fit for pictures of old junk.
8 – Architecture
332 – Through A Window
I like this picture. It’s probably crap. It’s split right in half, no rule of thirds appled here…I guess it could’ve been a good one for the Breaking The Rules theme… This was a neat vista to me but the dry grass was the same color as the concrete walls and trying to oversaturate the colors had a poor effect. So I subdued it even further which I think added to the moodiness of the scene: the broken building, the graffiti, the desolate scenery, the monsoon-dampened sky…
That bridge runs over the headwaters of the Verde River, and the view from the other side of this building used to be Sullivan Lake, which is now dry except briefly in floods (see link).
37 – Car Parts
We tooled around this cool antique mining exhibit the other day. I haven’t been since I was a kid and hubby had never been…it hasn’t changed much. The owner is basically a hoarder with a gimmick, and charges admission to see his junk. Genius? I think so! When I see a busted old vehicle like this with paint in 100 colors, I can’t help but do that cartoony HDR effect to it, because it looks bad-ass.
If you get the chance, go check this place out. It’s called the Gold King Mine & Ghost Town and it’s right outside of Jerome, AZ. Stop & talk to Don when you go. He has led an amazing life and tells the best stories; he’s also extremely knowledgeable. Plus, it’s next to dirt cheap to get in!
47 – Chimneys
This is a very cool spot where several old ranch line cabins have burned to the ground, leaving only their chimneys. It would have been sweet to get all the chimneys in one picture but they’re too far apart and the trees are too thick. This is the neatest one, though…you can walk right up the front steps, through the “door” and into the cabin. A few more good rains and the tipping chimney will fall over backward. We had the unfortunate experience of showing up at a super-bright time of day, where the position of the sun caused the tree (in the immediate walkway of the steps) to cast super-dark shadows on the entry. So a lot of my details were either washed out or too dark, and my colors were very blah. So I ran this through the HDR Pop preset in my Topaz Adjust filter to get this…
This is the old Bar 37 area of what is now the Yolo Ranch outside of Prescott, AZ or Bagdad, AZ (depending on where you’re coming from). It happens to be for sale right now (see link) for $12mil+. Hell, at that price, I’ll take two!
Random fact: My great-grandparents worked on the Yolo in the 50s. My granny was the cook at headquarters and my grandpa was a wrangler.
My Little Project 365 