Abandoned House

Old structures can have a quaint charm that photographers have exploited for decades if not centuries. I plead guilty of the same crime here, but I find myself fascinated by the process of decay. As I see something like this abandoned homestead, I wonder at what point this house was no longer functional for the inhabitants. When did the last person who lived here leave, and decided to never return? How long before the landscape completely reclaims the land?


My educated guess is that this place was abandoned in the 1930's, sometime during the great depression. There are other homesteads further east that have a similar look, with known pedigrees of ownership and abandonment. 



crumbling old homestead in central washington



crumbling old homestead in central washington




crumbling old homestead in central washington



crumbling old homestead in central washington

Aimless Shooting

I always seem to be balancing multiple projects at the same time, and while I like being busy – I occasionally miss being able to simply let my mind go and find an interesting subject at my leisure. It becomes something of a creative exercise, and while traversing a winter forest recently I made time to slow down and wander a bit. The weather was cool and wet, and the light was drab so something of interest was not immediately obvious.


My mind wandered, and my eye roamed. It was wonderful.


decaying leaves on the forest floor

Winter Kill

It has been a stormy and cold winter along the coast. I can't be sure if it was the hard time of year, or disease that killed this juvenile, bull elk – but it does not appear that a predator killed it.



Now it is time for the scavengers. When I arrived, it was obvious that they had already started to feast on the carcass. Probably coyotes and raccoons at night, and hawks and eagles by day. In between hail storms, I set-up three, motion-sensing cameras in the muck and mud around the elk to photograph the scavengers.



It will be interesting to see what the cameras record.

Stay tuned.