Scenes of decay

I’ve posted this image before, but it deserves another look. I love acquired texture, the patina of life. This parking lot was once a busy scene of commerce: businesses were thriving and serving customers, until a fire wiped out most of it. Now it’s a field of rubble, but amazingly, there are a few buildings still standing, and commerce is still going on, in different forms.

But unfortunately, I don’t think this area will ever thrive again, and in my head I hear an anthem for rural American, the center of industrialism that nourished communities, that are gone and will probably relocate someplace else, and maybe provide jobs for other people who probably deserve it. But, one can feel the grief of this bygone age.

 

Carousel horses

I have always loved carousel horses. They used to be hand carved by craftsmen, each individual and unique, full of life and detail and care. At some point, they started molding them out of plastic and there was no joy in them. When I was a kid, half the fun of the carousel, maybe even three-quarters of it, was that feeling that your horse was a mighty steed, you FELT something from that wooden horse as it surged around. You picked one that spoke to you, you almost felt that its flaring nostrils were breathing hot breath; its carved wind-tossed mane was snapping in the wind.

At Smiley’s Flea Market, the one thing that I thought was truly beautiful was the old carousel. It’s not well maintained, but these old-style horses were really nice. And of course, the iPhone, which was the only camera I had with me, did a superb job of capturing the horses, even though they were moving past me at speed, and it was dark behind them, but the phone STILL picked up enough light, with a fast enough shutter speed, to take these gorgeous pictures.

In General

I was wandering through Saluda, NC.  The front of the “General Store” caught my eye, and I quickly stuck my iPhone in the door and snapped one picture.  Not only is it an amazing store, which almost looks as though you are peeking back in time to 1962, but the photo itself came out so well it set me back on my heels.  Both the front and the dark back of the store are captured well, even with such different amounts of light.

I didn’t enhance this pic at all, not even a crop.  Just put a border around it.

And hey, when was the last time you saw Green Stamps? How many of you even know what Green Stamps were?

General Store

One of those things you see in Asheville.  The board on the left says “Ride it like you stole it”.  I love these boards!  Love the culture that supports this kind of business.  and last but not least, taking pictures of reflective surfaces is something I particularly love to work on.

iPhone 7Plus, slightly enhanced in Photo Toaster.

Pyramid Power

    
At the North Carolina Museum of Art. There is an amazing green glass sculpture, which looks flat up close, and rather featureless. If you stand back from it, there appears to be an eye floating at the top, and it look pyramidal. There is a window right behind it which makes it luminous.

Usually when I go to the museum I take a picture of the sculpture from a corridor of lockers opposite it, which gives it a wonderful perspective. This time, there was a docent standing behind the pyramid, gazing off into space. I got a few shots off, and the my husband walked around the corner, not knowing I was shooting. It was too perfect, getting the shots of both men.

I’ve tried a couple of different treatments here.