I did a U-turn when I saw this old home and had to get a couple shots with the magnificent sky in the background. I walked on the property a few steps to shoot and it wasn’t long before I spotted a tractor moving toward me in high gear. I thought “Ok here comes the codger to chew me out.” I could have walked to the car and driven away but I thought I would stay and hear him out. His first words, “you wanna hear about the history of this house?” The guy was so nice, we talked for an hour and he asked me to stop by and meet the family. I thanked him and said he could see the picture on the computer and he said “I don’t mess with computers.” I said “you’re a lucky man.”
The home was built before the Civil War with additions later. The original wood planks are the wide ones adjacent to the front door and were "pit cut" meaning one man stood in a pit and another man above, they would pull the long saw blade back and forth to cut the wood. I wonder what the pay was back then?
I enjoy photographing the rinky dink carnivals run by gypsies more than the hi-tech ones with super-sonic rides. Who doesn’t love the music, kids screaming, the food and clicking sounds from loosely assembled rides with rusty bolts. I drove past the carnival on Rt. 5 St. Mary’s County, it was closed and surrounded with a chain link fence but the skies were too good to pass up the chance to get some decent shots from the outside. I composed pics that included only the top of the rides so my images were clean. Circling around the fence I found a gate left open by the staff so I slipped through and walked around an empty park. It was exciting to be the only one there, and just in case I had my story all ready in case I ran into someone along the way. “Oh I’m looking for someone to get permission to take pictures for a newspaper article.” No one showed, then 2 guys left the bar across the street and walked toward the park. One guy zig-zagged and staggered toward me, stopping at times talking to himself. I hid behind the carousel and dashed back through the gate, never noticed. Whew, that was a close one.
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Babies become tots, tots become kids, kids become teens. All those toys you buy get discarded and that’s why we have yard sales. Yard sales keep our junk moving around the country and out of the landfill. Think of it as a green alternative, the recycling of junk, less mucking up the water system and soil. When your junk gets too much for you to manage it’s moved to another home and the best part they pay you for hauling your junk away. The government could never have come up with an idea so clever.
I’m a little rusty on my farm equipment but I know an out of plumb barn when I see one. I didn’t trespass on this one.
It used to be that gas was deadly, now it’s just socially unacceptable.
If memory serves lead in gasoline was phased out sometime in the 70’s but the soil adjacent to old roads still has higher levels of lead. So now you’ve been warned, don’t eat any of the dirt next to old roads.
My latest book is about the new and exciting techniques in HDR Photography.
