A trip to Scott and the Old Mill...

Last week after a somewhat frustrating day at work, I thought I'd take the camera out and try to get some shots of something. I decided to head out to the small town of Scott, about 10 miles east of Little Rock, to have a look around some of the old buildings there. And also, if I could, find a place to catch the sunset in some of the swampy areas around there.

I drove out there, and really didn't have much luck finding anything. There is a place there called the Scott Plantation Settlement, where they have accumulated all sorts of old buildings and recreated an old plantation. But it was fenced off and closed, and anyways I'd have had to pay three bucks for the honor of looking at their buildings. I thought about sneaking by the fence, but decided not to since I'd probably have the finest from Scott PD on me for trespassing. Oh well, time to move on.

A bit down the road is a small state park, the Plantation Agriculture Museum. I've never actually been inside, but I assume it has to do with plantation agriculture. The museum is next to an oxbow lake, so I tried to scout out any potential places for a sunset shot. Not really seeing anything, I walked around and got a few shots of this old building, surrounded by all sorts of weeds:


There is a huge old barn/warehouse that was recently renovated and I made my towards it. Last time I was there, the state was clearing out some places that had been overgrown by weeds and poison ivy. There were all sorts of old rail cars and old oil tanks, that had probably been abandoned for decades and forgotten about. I looked forward to taking some newer pictures of them, only to find that they had all been torn down. Crap!

Well they saved at least one of the old rail cars, and setting it up on display along a piece of track next the old barn/warehouse thing. So this is a shot looking through some old cracked glass:


Well you know those days when all sorts of great photos just present themselves to you, seemingly plopping down at your feet, practically taking the camera and taking the picture themselves? Well, this wasn't one of those days. I got in the car and sort of aimlessly drove around, looking for at least something to shoot. The light was fading fast, and I got a bit more desperate.

Finally on some random road I found another lake with some nicely placed cypress trees, with a bit of the sunset still lingering in the sky. I was way too late to actually get any good light, but I tried for something anyways. I used a flash on this one so that it would at least show some of the trees, but I'm not too sure how this one turned out.


A few days later, I made a trip over to the Old Mill. Now the Old Mill is a really neat place, and I always like going there. My grandparents used to live a few blocks away so we always would make a trip there, and a cousin even got married there. It's also a popular spot for taking pictures, I think it must be some sort of law that states that if you pass through town with a camera, you are required to stop by there. In the short time I was there that evening, there were two groups of people getting family/engagement portraits done. The two groups both got a bit pissy with each other since they would get in each other's way or in the background of the other's shots. I was annoyed with them because they were all in my way, so I had to wait awhile before it was clear to take a few shots. Here is one I got when no one was in the way:


And if you like pictures of old buildings, stay tuned. Took a trip down to Hot Springs last weekend, so I'll get those up as soon as I get finished doing some photoshop stuff to them...
(UPDATE: finally figured out how to change the formatting on here so larger pictures will show up ok. Now I just have to go back and change the small pics to larger ones...).